A Vindication of the Rights of Women

A FEMINIST CLASSIC This classic 1792 political treatise by British writer Mary Wollstonecraft argues that women should be treated with equal dignity and respect to men, especially regarding education. It was instrumental in laying the foundation for the women's suffrage and feminist movements. Her trailblazing work posits that the educational system deliberately trained women to be frivolous and incapable. Wollstonecraft’s goal was not to undermine the role of women in the home as she pointed out that if girls were allowed the same advantages as boys, women would not only be exceptional wives and mothers, but they would also be capable workers. She encouraged society to see them as a valuable resource and called for women and men to be educated equally for without an education, women are merely men’s “slaves” and “playthings”—not the intelligent, rational companions of a just and equal society. “…Effect a revolution in female manners…restore to them their lost dignity…as a part of the human species…reforming themselves to reform the world.” Tackling many of the punitive patriarchal attitudes that dominated eighteenth-century society, she launched a broad attack against sexual double standards, urging women to prioritize reason over emotion to break free from male notions of female fragility and foolishness. This, her signature, classic work of early feminism remains as relevant today as it was when first released and an essential text in feminist literature. ,MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT died in 1797 at age 38, eleven days after giving birth to her second daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, who would become a noted writer herself, as the author of Frankenstein.