Mary Wollstoncrafts, The Vindication of the Rights of Women

Mary Wollstoncrafts, The Vindication of the Rights of Women Mary Wollstoncrafts book, The Vindication of the Rights of Women, is an incredibly insightful look into the life of women in the early portion of this century. It is a philosophical examination of the condition of women, in relationship to some very basic rights, and is also a very enlightening look at how short a distance we really have come, as a society, in relationship to our perceptions of women. Wollstoncraft presents herself as an incredibly enlightened individual who looks at her gender as a subject which should be seen as reasonable creatures, rather than brutes or heroines. She begins her book with words which clearly illustrate her concerns: After considering†¦show more content†¦They will be seen as marrying material, or spinster material, all of which revolves around the services the women can provide for the men and for reproduction purposes. Her intent in addressing this philosophical subject can be clearly seen in following address to the women: My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating graces, and viewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone. I earnestly wish to point out in what true dignity and human happiness consists. I wish to persuade women to endeavor to acquire strength, both of mind and body, and to convince them that the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are almost synonymous with epithets of weakness, and that those beings who are only the objects of pity, and that kind of love which has been