"A Vindiction of the Rights of Woman"

Mary Wollstonecraft's "A Vindiction of the Rights of Woman" gave a very insightful view of how women were treated in the 1700's. I thought Wollstonecraft's essay was very honest, and it was hard to miss the anger and frustration she felt regarding the way women were expected to act and think. It must have been aggravating to have been a woman during that time when women were so oppressed. From what I can gather, I think the gist of the essay was purely ideas/views about women that should have been common sense to everyone else as well.

I enjoyed the quote, "That a proper education; or, to speak with more precision, a well stored mind, would enable a woman to support a single life with dignity." I thought this basically summed up Wollstonecraft's view that women deserve a proper education as much as men. I thought it also illustrated the fact that women should be able to live independently without fear of social consequences or shame. I found Mary Wollstonecraft to be very opinionated and intelligent which was quite unusual for her time. I thought that made her pretty brave and I can definitely respect that.

Wollstonecraft also alluded to authors such as Rousseau and Dr. Gregory and how she was opposed to their views on women. I liked how she proceeded to state why she disagreed with them and offered her own views. It was refreshing to see her comments on their writings, especially from a woman's perspective. She stated, "I may be accused of arrogance; still I must declare, what I firmly believe, 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, than they would otherwise have been." I thought this really depicted the ignorance of male authors trying to write about a topic they knew essentially nothing about.

I thought this essay was a fairly beneficial step towards feminism, and although I didn't always understand the language or entirely agree with what Wollstonecraft was saying, I believe women such as her were true pioneers towards the freedoms women have today.