Scan barcode
lucysnowy's review against another edition
2.0
my disclaimer to begin that i didnt read all of this, just the select chapters that were set. and i cannot say that they filled me with inspiration. it is quite hard to get through. i have a feeling that the chapters set (4, 12, 13) skirt around the main argument of wollstonecraft's writing, as a piece of secondary reading i indulged in proved more fruitful in discussing matters synonymous with the work (equal franchise, equal pay etc). the section on education for women and its relevance in family life was probably the most interesting, but all in all, i cannot say that i will pick up this book again.
"but, till more equality be established in society, till ranks are confounded and women freed, we shall not see that dignified domestic happiness"
"but, till more equality be established in society, till ranks are confounded and women freed, we shall not see that dignified domestic happiness"
spenkevich's review against another edition
4.0
‘Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience.’
In 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft dropped a bomb into the intellectual world with A Vindication of the Rights of Women, widely considered the first feminist manifesto. It will come as no surprise that there was a hostile reception, though it was reviewed positively in many magazines, received a second printing almost immediately, and quickly came to the US and was translated into French. Mary delivers a strong rallying cry for the education of women and sharp criticisms of social norms that oppress women and coach them into submission, ideas that would resonate through the ages and inspire generations of feminist thought that would expand upon them. This includes her own daughter, famed author [a:Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley|11139|Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1699348762p2/11139.jpg] who also shocked the world releasing [b:Frankenstein|35031085|Frankenstein The 1818 Text|Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1631088473l/35031085._SY75_.jpg|4836639] at the age of 18, and many of her ideas about women given the space for their own financial mobility feel like prototypes for [a:Simone de Beauvoir|5548|Simone de Beauvoir|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1555042345p2/5548.jpg]’s arguments in [b:The Second Sex|9684227|The Second Sex|Simone de Beauvoir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348744262l/9684227._SY75_.jpg|879666]. Sharp, witty, and full of fiery intensity, A Vindication of the Rights of Women (published here as The Feminist Papers) is an excellent historical document on the fight for women’s liberation and still remains an engrossing read today.
‘It is time to effect a revolution in female manners - time to restore to them their lost dignity - and make them, as a part of the human species, labour by reforming themselves to reform the world. It is time to separate unchangeable morals from local manners.’
A Vindication of the Rights of Women may well be one of the earliest feminist manifestos, though the term “feminism” was not coined for another century. This novel-length manifesto may feel dated in many ways—I mean it was 1792 so don’t expect the nuance of modern discourse around gender—yet also reads as impressively ahead of it’s time. She knows her audience, though, and couches much of her arguments in religious contexts seeing as her readers would likely be religious and, in an appeal for reason, writes in a context that reason was bestowed and decreed by God. Similarly, acknowledging that men would largely be reading this, much of it is addressed diretly to the men of her time to urge them to be active in undoing the shackles of patriarchal rule and acknowledge that their actions are what have lead to the oppression and mistreatment of women. In this way, she also counteracts many typical responses against women’s liberation, namely that even with equality women would still be “lesser” than men. ‘Let men prove this, and I shall grant that woman only exists for man,’ she writes, arguing that without being given the opportunity to see what happens under a more equal society their argument is meaningless conjecture. She writes ‘there is little reason to fear that women will acquire too much courage or fortitude,’ in response to the slippery-slope claims that giving women financial agency or a space in the workforce outside the home would cause them to become ‘too masculine’ or become oppressors themselves. To any fearmongering against women’s equality, she proclaims ‘what a weak barrier is truth when it stands in the way of an hypothesis!’ and calls for space for women instead of neglecting it by assuming the worst.
‘I do not wish them [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.’
The key to her manifesto is the establishment of a National Education system that gives equal opportunities and access to men and women. The argument is that if education allowed men to thrive, women would also thrive under greater enlightenment. This was written in response to a report by Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord which has called for women to only receive a “domestic education,” something she saw as society ensuring women would have no agency beyond the duties of a housewife. Wollstonecraft argues that without proper enrichment in the sciences, the scope of women’s interest will never extend beyond superficial household issues and the gatekeeping of education is also gatekeeping them from fulfillment in a larger society. Her statement that without a proper education women will be ‘dependent on the novelist for amusement,’ a nice jab at the men of letters (also hilarious considering her own daughter’s success as a writer later on) but implying that women will have no scope of the world beyond the entertainment of fiction, or in modern parlance, saying they will want nothing beyond sitting and watching bad tv.
This manifesto does mostly to serve the needs of a middle class in its critique of the wealthy ruling class. She writes that ‘after the age of nine, girls and boys, intended for domestic employments, or mechanical trades, ought to be removed to other schools, and receive instruction, in some measure appropriated to the destination of each individual,’ so the poorer working class will still be given some education but expected to remain laborers. This isn’t a perfect manifesto that achieves Fannie Lou Hamer’ statement that ‘nobody's free until everybody's free,’ but all the same this was radically progressive for its time.
‘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 really enjoyed the way Wollstonecraft dissects society to show how the belief of women as lesser and submissive to men is something coached by social norms and is essentially a self-fulfilling prophecy dictated by patriarchal rule. As society is ruled from the top down in terms of wealth, so too is society ruled with regard to gender under an assumption that men are more capable and deserving of ruling. She looks at the way the treatment of women, such as the lack of access to education or employment, leaves them with no social agency or mobility and thus, in resignation, become the very thing men wish them to be. ‘All the sacred rights of humanity are violated by insisting on blind obedience,’ she writes, insisting women stop allowing themselves to be pigeonholed into these roles.
This extends to topics such as marriage, and while she admits there isn’t much opportunity for women without being married, urges women to not allow themselves to become a slave to their husband. She says how men act like tyrants in marriage and that there in no reason for it to be an institution of oppression, something Beauvoir would expand upon greatly in [b:The Second Sex|9684227|The Second Sex|Simone de Beauvoir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348744262l/9684227._SY75_.jpg|879666] charting how possession of women became equated with possession of property as another way that equality was denied simply by seeming ridiculous in a society where women were dehumanized as objects.
‘It is vain to expect virtue from women till they are in some degree independent of men.’
In a society where reason and virtue is valued, Mary Wollstonecraft argues that without the access to education and equality for women, than it is all meaningless signaling. A Vindication of the Rights of Women remains a sharp, insightful text and excellent look at the early wave-making of feminist thought that would grow and gain power and force over generations. It is certainly not perfect, and reads rather dated (it can also be assumed women’s rights likely just meant white women) but is still quite interesting. This was an excellent read for Women’s History Month, and while it is a bit of a denser read, it is still quite accessible and interesting. Mary Wollstonecraft helped light a fuse that continues in the fight for women’s rights and a more just, equitable society.
4/5
‘Make them free, and they will quickly become wise and virtuous, as men become more so; for the improvement must be mutual, or the justice which one half of the human race are obliged to submit to, retorting on their oppressors, the virtue of man will be worm-eaten by the insect whom he keeps under his feet.’
In 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft dropped a bomb into the intellectual world with A Vindication of the Rights of Women, widely considered the first feminist manifesto. It will come as no surprise that there was a hostile reception, though it was reviewed positively in many magazines, received a second printing almost immediately, and quickly came to the US and was translated into French. Mary delivers a strong rallying cry for the education of women and sharp criticisms of social norms that oppress women and coach them into submission, ideas that would resonate through the ages and inspire generations of feminist thought that would expand upon them. This includes her own daughter, famed author [a:Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley|11139|Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1699348762p2/11139.jpg] who also shocked the world releasing [b:Frankenstein|35031085|Frankenstein The 1818 Text|Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1631088473l/35031085._SY75_.jpg|4836639] at the age of 18, and many of her ideas about women given the space for their own financial mobility feel like prototypes for [a:Simone de Beauvoir|5548|Simone de Beauvoir|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1555042345p2/5548.jpg]’s arguments in [b:The Second Sex|9684227|The Second Sex|Simone de Beauvoir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348744262l/9684227._SY75_.jpg|879666]. Sharp, witty, and full of fiery intensity, A Vindication of the Rights of Women (published here as The Feminist Papers) is an excellent historical document on the fight for women’s liberation and still remains an engrossing read today.
‘It is time to effect a revolution in female manners - time to restore to them their lost dignity - and make them, as a part of the human species, labour by reforming themselves to reform the world. It is time to separate unchangeable morals from local manners.’
A Vindication of the Rights of Women may well be one of the earliest feminist manifestos, though the term “feminism” was not coined for another century. This novel-length manifesto may feel dated in many ways—I mean it was 1792 so don’t expect the nuance of modern discourse around gender—yet also reads as impressively ahead of it’s time. She knows her audience, though, and couches much of her arguments in religious contexts seeing as her readers would likely be religious and, in an appeal for reason, writes in a context that reason was bestowed and decreed by God. Similarly, acknowledging that men would largely be reading this, much of it is addressed diretly to the men of her time to urge them to be active in undoing the shackles of patriarchal rule and acknowledge that their actions are what have lead to the oppression and mistreatment of women. In this way, she also counteracts many typical responses against women’s liberation, namely that even with equality women would still be “lesser” than men. ‘Let men prove this, and I shall grant that woman only exists for man,’ she writes, arguing that without being given the opportunity to see what happens under a more equal society their argument is meaningless conjecture. She writes ‘there is little reason to fear that women will acquire too much courage or fortitude,’ in response to the slippery-slope claims that giving women financial agency or a space in the workforce outside the home would cause them to become ‘too masculine’ or become oppressors themselves. To any fearmongering against women’s equality, she proclaims ‘what a weak barrier is truth when it stands in the way of an hypothesis!’ and calls for space for women instead of neglecting it by assuming the worst.
‘I do not wish them [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.’
The key to her manifesto is the establishment of a National Education system that gives equal opportunities and access to men and women. The argument is that if education allowed men to thrive, women would also thrive under greater enlightenment. This was written in response to a report by Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord which has called for women to only receive a “domestic education,” something she saw as society ensuring women would have no agency beyond the duties of a housewife. Wollstonecraft argues that without proper enrichment in the sciences, the scope of women’s interest will never extend beyond superficial household issues and the gatekeeping of education is also gatekeeping them from fulfillment in a larger society. Her statement that without a proper education women will be ‘dependent on the novelist for amusement,’ a nice jab at the men of letters (also hilarious considering her own daughter’s success as a writer later on) but implying that women will have no scope of the world beyond the entertainment of fiction, or in modern parlance, saying they will want nothing beyond sitting and watching bad tv.
This manifesto does mostly to serve the needs of a middle class in its critique of the wealthy ruling class. She writes that ‘after the age of nine, girls and boys, intended for domestic employments, or mechanical trades, ought to be removed to other schools, and receive instruction, in some measure appropriated to the destination of each individual,’ so the poorer working class will still be given some education but expected to remain laborers. This isn’t a perfect manifesto that achieves Fannie Lou Hamer’ statement that ‘nobody's free until everybody's free,’ but all the same this was radically progressive for its time.
‘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 really enjoyed the way Wollstonecraft dissects society to show how the belief of women as lesser and submissive to men is something coached by social norms and is essentially a self-fulfilling prophecy dictated by patriarchal rule. As society is ruled from the top down in terms of wealth, so too is society ruled with regard to gender under an assumption that men are more capable and deserving of ruling. She looks at the way the treatment of women, such as the lack of access to education or employment, leaves them with no social agency or mobility and thus, in resignation, become the very thing men wish them to be. ‘All the sacred rights of humanity are violated by insisting on blind obedience,’ she writes, insisting women stop allowing themselves to be pigeonholed into these roles.
This extends to topics such as marriage, and while she admits there isn’t much opportunity for women without being married, urges women to not allow themselves to become a slave to their husband. She says how men act like tyrants in marriage and that there in no reason for it to be an institution of oppression, something Beauvoir would expand upon greatly in [b:The Second Sex|9684227|The Second Sex|Simone de Beauvoir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348744262l/9684227._SY75_.jpg|879666] charting how possession of women became equated with possession of property as another way that equality was denied simply by seeming ridiculous in a society where women were dehumanized as objects.
‘It is vain to expect virtue from women till they are in some degree independent of men.’
In a society where reason and virtue is valued, Mary Wollstonecraft argues that without the access to education and equality for women, than it is all meaningless signaling. A Vindication of the Rights of Women remains a sharp, insightful text and excellent look at the early wave-making of feminist thought that would grow and gain power and force over generations. It is certainly not perfect, and reads rather dated (it can also be assumed women’s rights likely just meant white women) but is still quite interesting. This was an excellent read for Women’s History Month, and while it is a bit of a denser read, it is still quite accessible and interesting. Mary Wollstonecraft helped light a fuse that continues in the fight for women’s rights and a more just, equitable society.
4/5
‘Make them free, and they will quickly become wise and virtuous, as men become more so; for the improvement must be mutual, or the justice which one half of the human race are obliged to submit to, retorting on their oppressors, the virtue of man will be worm-eaten by the insect whom he keeps under his feet.’
thechaliceofaries's review
4.0
"Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience."
Feminism is always a complicated topic to write about, because I've seen its focal elements vary by the contexts they're applied to. In the West, the third wave of feminism tends to focus a lot on body politics, sexual empowerment, and intersectionality - all of which are critical, of course, in the fight for true equality. I understand and respect these values, and don't mean in any way to discredit them.
This review, though, is centered around the type of feminism I think is still highly necessary, and often underdeveloped, in the ethnic and religious cultures I grew up around. There, feminism is still fighting its earliest battle: the idea that women are no less intelligent, capable or deserving of freedom/independence than men. Sexism prevails in so many archaic ways, and I see it every single day in my culture. Women are beat into submission, raped, and even murdered for "indiscretions" as minor as dressing a certain way or acting against misogynistic ideals. They're expected to be docile, obedient, complacent. They're expected to bear disrespect and subjugation without complaint. Equal access to education and employment is a privilege only afforded to those occupying higher social classes. Their bodies are made the properties of the men in their lives, and their free will only extends as far as they comply with the dictates of their fathers, brothers, and husbands. It's hard not to view this type of prejudice as utterly dehumanising, a reduction of women's value to the sum of their reproductive parts.
Mary Wollstonecraft's "A Vindication of the Right of Women" is considered the first feminist philosophical text ever written. It was published in the 18th century, and many of the issues it discusses have now lost their relevance in Western countries, where such ideas are common sense.
But when I read that quote at the top of my review, I'm reminded of how much more work there is to be done for women's rights in my culture. The fact that a woman is more than a weakling in constant need of male protection/guardianship, whose morality is more than just the responsibility of the men around her, is still highly controversial in places. Wollstonecraft's feminism has been criticized for being too didactic and harsh against women, and while I agree, I think we need to remember the rhetorical context of the work itself. It was written from frustration at the state of affairs in a century rife with gender inequality. I relate to and understand that frustration very well myself when I bear witness to the misogyny in my own culture. Towards the second half of the book her ideas get progressively more ascetic, but I think my main takeaway from this was about the importance of education. A lack of education is the root of so much inequality in the world, and though I am not convinced on everything in this book, I certainly appreciate the value of her call to educate women.
When I call myself a feminist, I am thinking especially of these women in my culture who would benefit from the basic principles in this book. Your voices aren't forgotten, your sufferings no less valid. We may be fighting a different battle than our contemporaries in the West, but it is still a fiercely important one. Keep doing the good work, keep pushing for gender reforms, and most of all - keep strong in your conviction that your womanhood is a source of STRENGTH, not that of shame and servitude. You are powerful, intelligent, and important; please never forget that.
Feminism is always a complicated topic to write about, because I've seen its focal elements vary by the contexts they're applied to. In the West, the third wave of feminism tends to focus a lot on body politics, sexual empowerment, and intersectionality - all of which are critical, of course, in the fight for true equality. I understand and respect these values, and don't mean in any way to discredit them.
This review, though, is centered around the type of feminism I think is still highly necessary, and often underdeveloped, in the ethnic and religious cultures I grew up around. There, feminism is still fighting its earliest battle: the idea that women are no less intelligent, capable or deserving of freedom/independence than men. Sexism prevails in so many archaic ways, and I see it every single day in my culture. Women are beat into submission, raped, and even murdered for "indiscretions" as minor as dressing a certain way or acting against misogynistic ideals. They're expected to be docile, obedient, complacent. They're expected to bear disrespect and subjugation without complaint. Equal access to education and employment is a privilege only afforded to those occupying higher social classes. Their bodies are made the properties of the men in their lives, and their free will only extends as far as they comply with the dictates of their fathers, brothers, and husbands. It's hard not to view this type of prejudice as utterly dehumanising, a reduction of women's value to the sum of their reproductive parts.
Mary Wollstonecraft's "A Vindication of the Right of Women" is considered the first feminist philosophical text ever written. It was published in the 18th century, and many of the issues it discusses have now lost their relevance in Western countries, where such ideas are common sense.
But when I read that quote at the top of my review, I'm reminded of how much more work there is to be done for women's rights in my culture. The fact that a woman is more than a weakling in constant need of male protection/guardianship, whose morality is more than just the responsibility of the men around her, is still highly controversial in places. Wollstonecraft's feminism has been criticized for being too didactic and harsh against women, and while I agree, I think we need to remember the rhetorical context of the work itself. It was written from frustration at the state of affairs in a century rife with gender inequality. I relate to and understand that frustration very well myself when I bear witness to the misogyny in my own culture. Towards the second half of the book her ideas get progressively more ascetic, but I think my main takeaway from this was about the importance of education. A lack of education is the root of so much inequality in the world, and though I am not convinced on everything in this book, I certainly appreciate the value of her call to educate women.
When I call myself a feminist, I am thinking especially of these women in my culture who would benefit from the basic principles in this book. Your voices aren't forgotten, your sufferings no less valid. We may be fighting a different battle than our contemporaries in the West, but it is still a fiercely important one. Keep doing the good work, keep pushing for gender reforms, and most of all - keep strong in your conviction that your womanhood is a source of STRENGTH, not that of shame and servitude. You are powerful, intelligent, and important; please never forget that.
loarakel's review against another edition
4.0
Fyndið að lesa þetta 2024, mikið búið að breytast🤪☝️en Wollstonecraft er flott✨✨✨
ellie_cripps's review against another edition
4.0
Super engaging and I'm glad to have finally read it, pretty dense text wise because the intentions of the author and time it was written, but really that just further justifies taking your time!
katnissevergreen's review against another edition
3.0
",,,what were we created for? To remain it may be said, innocent; they mean in a state of childhood. - We might as well have never been born, unless it were necessary that we should be created to enable men to acquire the noble privilege of reason, the power of discerning good from evil, whilst we lie down in the dust from when we were taken, never to rise again."
"Pleasure prepares the fading wreath, and mixes the intoxicating cup; but the fruit which virtue gives, is the recompence of toil; and, gradually seen as it ripens, only affords calm satisfaction."
Wollstonecraft's main emphasis is on the necessity of education to improve/liberate women, as they will always be terrible (cunning, vain, etc.), if they don't have understanding, judgement and virtue gained from education. She also calls for a national, free school system that would educated boys and girls, rich and poor together, which exists to a certain extent (though less so the mixing of rich and poor) in many countries, though modern education, which focuses on memorization, drilling in information, is certainly not Wollstonecraft would have wanted, as she prioritized a civic, moral education, physical activity - as the physical and mental virtue complement each other - and more imaginative, innovative ways of teaching that don't rely on drilling, or lecturing.
Wollstonecraft's thoughts on what humans should aim themselves towards are also interesting, as these inform her argument for women's rights. She values the expansion of the mind and reason above all, seeing reason as like to god. And reason can only come from a good education, which produces judgement, reflection, understanding, modesty, virtue and of course reason in a person. Wollstonecraft spends time describing what she thinks each of these qualities ought to be in a person of true learning. And of course, she also details how she thinks these qualities are debased a society of wealth and sexual inequality, in which people blindly bow to prejudice and authority.
The book is disorganized and the writing confusing at times. It could have been shorter. Vindication reads very differently from modern feminist writings, as feminism would grow to write towards a theory of patriarchy and male supremacy, both historically and in present society, a theory which is not really present in this book, at least not much. Wollstonecraft is also pretty harsh to women as a group, which stems from her focus on how lack of education inculcates vice in women, and also her focus on primarily upper-class women (a contempt for which Simone de Beauvoir also expresses in The Second Sex). But I still think the writing is interesting, and worth reading, both as a significant text in the history of feminism, and for the value her insights can still hold. As said, it is also a philosophical text, putting forward of the view of society and what it ought to be/vlaue, so this is of interest as well.
Finally, though she tempers it at times, its sad to read how optimistic she is on education being this great force that can change things. I mean I agree with her but only to an extent. In particular, she thought educating boys and girls together could not help but to establish great fellow-feeling between them but alas...this doesn't seem to have happened. Oh well... More broadly, the way she imagined education, in terms of the method of teaching, and the value it ought to inspire, has not actually occurred so who knows, perhaps she may be proved more correct in this!
"Pleasure prepares the fading wreath, and mixes the intoxicating cup; but the fruit which virtue gives, is the recompence of toil; and, gradually seen as it ripens, only affords calm satisfaction."
Wollstonecraft's main emphasis is on the necessity of education to improve/liberate women, as they will always be terrible (cunning, vain, etc.), if they don't have understanding, judgement and virtue gained from education. She also calls for a national, free school system that would educated boys and girls, rich and poor together, which exists to a certain extent (though less so the mixing of rich and poor) in many countries, though modern education, which focuses on memorization, drilling in information, is certainly not Wollstonecraft would have wanted, as she prioritized a civic, moral education, physical activity - as the physical and mental virtue complement each other - and more imaginative, innovative ways of teaching that don't rely on drilling, or lecturing.
Wollstonecraft's thoughts on what humans should aim themselves towards are also interesting, as these inform her argument for women's rights. She values the expansion of the mind and reason above all, seeing reason as like to god. And reason can only come from a good education, which produces judgement, reflection, understanding, modesty, virtue and of course reason in a person. Wollstonecraft spends time describing what she thinks each of these qualities ought to be in a person of true learning. And of course, she also details how she thinks these qualities are debased a society of wealth and sexual inequality, in which people blindly bow to prejudice and authority.
The book is disorganized and the writing confusing at times. It could have been shorter. Vindication reads very differently from modern feminist writings, as feminism would grow to write towards a theory of patriarchy and male supremacy, both historically and in present society, a theory which is not really present in this book, at least not much. Wollstonecraft is also pretty harsh to women as a group, which stems from her focus on how lack of education inculcates vice in women, and also her focus on primarily upper-class women (a contempt for which Simone de Beauvoir also expresses in The Second Sex). But I still think the writing is interesting, and worth reading, both as a significant text in the history of feminism, and for the value her insights can still hold. As said, it is also a philosophical text, putting forward of the view of society and what it ought to be/vlaue, so this is of interest as well.
Finally, though she tempers it at times, its sad to read how optimistic she is on education being this great force that can change things. I mean I agree with her but only to an extent. In particular, she thought educating boys and girls together could not help but to establish great fellow-feeling between them but alas...this doesn't seem to have happened. Oh well... More broadly, the way she imagined education, in terms of the method of teaching, and the value it ought to inspire, has not actually occurred so who knows, perhaps she may be proved more correct in this!