Mary Wollstonecraft was considered as one of the founders of feminism after her death. Her thoughts were greatly enlightened and influenced by the French Revolution at that time. She wrote “A Vindication of the Rights of Men” in 1791, which attacked constitutional monarchy and aristocracy. In the following year she wrote another radical essay called “Vindication of the Rights of Women”, which she is best known for.
“Men and women must be educated…It may then fairly be inferred, that, till society be differently constituted, much cannot be expected from education.” When i read about this, i realized that this article isn’t just about the rights of women; it is also an accusation of the current social structure. In fact, the unequal rights of women and men were led by the morbid social structure. Otherwise, Wollstonecraft would not state that, “that all the writers who have written on the subject of female education and manners from Rousseau to Dr. Gregory, have contributed to render women more artificial, weak characters.” It is the problem of the society that caused the great mind of Enlightenment Age to say women must rely on men. Wollstonecraft argues that men and women are just the same, no one is superior to another. According to the text, “If a man has the perfect understanding of everything at his maturity, then the women should rely on him. However, they are only overgrown children most of time.”
Another reason to be responsible for the prejudice upon women is the differences of education. Even though women can obtain as much knowledge as men can, there isn’t much for them to obtain. Women’s knowledge often comes from the real life experience; while men have well organized knowledge to obtain.
