Mary Wollstonecfaft - Essay Example

English Literature ic and Modern) Mary Wollstonecraft Wollstonecraft’s ideas in "A Vindication of the Rights of Women" focused on responding to other works during her time, which explored issues related to women education and female behaviors. In fact, this was a response to works written by men such as Dr. Gregory during the eighteenth century. Moreover, Wollstonecraft sought to underpin the idea of equality among men and women on issues regarding education, legal and political systems. Wollstonecraft argued that women’s education was not offered on the basis of helping them; in fact she also argued that the society made women imprudent and went ahead to blame them for their weaknesses.

In this case, she was demanding a revolution towards the idea of establishing equality, which would ensure that women could also attain middle and upper class levels, which had been reserved for men.On the other hand, male authors of her time such as Dr. Gregory, who was a conservative, contended that female, were unequal to male. In fact, he cited reasons related to women’s liking for cloths, which he termed as a trivial and insignificant preference. Therefore, he considered women incapable of serious thinking due to their cultivated fondness to trivial preference for cloths, which depicted them as insignificant people.

Wollstonecraft contended that women were ruled by sensible laws, instead of “despotism,” which was attributed to the way men treated them. Moreover, she argued that despite the education offered to women, they would still agree to be denied liberty and moral dignity. Therefore, in her opinion, perfect education was attributed to understanding, which would strengthen women and enable them to achieve independence (Wollstonecraft, 289). In fact, she considered women’s education to be a practical conspiracy of male educators aimed at rendering them weak or irrational.

In conclusion, the paper explores Wollstonecraft’s ideas regarding girl’s education in her book "Vindication of the Rights of Women." In this case, the paper gathers ideas to support the notion that girl’s education failed to prepare them to live independently. On the other hand, it sought to compare Wollstonecraft’s theory with that of Dr. Gregory who was a leading male writer during the eighteenth century. Works CitedWollstonecraft, Mary. "A Vindication of the Rights of Women." The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Major Authors. 8th ed. Vol. B. Ed.

Stephen Greenblatt. New York: Norton, 2006. Print.