A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects (1792), written by the eighteenth-century British feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, is one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy. In it, Wollstonecraft responds to those educational and political theorists of the eighteenth century who did not believe women should have an education. She argues that women ought to have an education commensurate with their position in society, claiming that women are essential to the nation because they educate its children and because they could be "companions" to their husbands, rather than mere wives. Instead of viewing women as ornaments to society or property to be traded in marriage, Wollstonecraft maintains that they are human beings deserving of the same fundamental rights as men.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I must admit that this was an extremely difficult read for me. I actually started reading the book in January, and it took me until early March to finish it. I honestly could not read more than 5-10 pages of this book at once, which is why it took me so long to read. The narration is very difficult to get into, the writing is dense and uses tons of words I'm not familiar with, and it seemed to me that Wollstonecraft repeated herself about a dozen times, just using different words to say the same things.
However, while this book was not an easy read for me by any means, I'm still glad I read it. I think it gave me a deeper appreciation of the struggles women have had to go through to get to where we are today. In Wollstonecraft's day, she was ostracized and condemned for writing a book that is based on a simple truth: women are people, too. Women should have rights just as men do, women should have choices available to them, etc. And that was quite a radical concept back in Wollstonecraft's time.
It's clear just how radical the concept was by the fact that most of her ideas would still be considered conservative and oppressive in today's world. She wasn't advocating for complete equality between the sexes, she was simply advocating for women to have some rights, some choices, some decision-making abilities, some representation in leadership, etc. She still wrote that women were best suited for motherhood, that they aren't as strong as men - ideas that when people say them today I want to laugh in their faces. But again, she was extremely radical for her time.
Did I find reading this book to be an enjoyable experience? Not really. But was it a worthwhile one? Absolutely.... Read more ›
However, while this book was not an easy read for me by any means, I'm still glad I read it. I think it gave me a deeper appreciation of the struggles women have had to go through to get to where we are today. In Wollstonecraft's day, she was ostracized and condemned for writing a book that is based on a simple truth: women are people, too. Women should have rights just as men do, women should have choices available to them, etc. And that was quite a radical concept back in Wollstonecraft's time.
It's clear just how radical the concept was by the fact that most of her ideas would still be considered conservative and oppressive in today's world. She wasn't advocating for complete equality between the sexes, she was simply advocating for women to have some rights, some choices, some decision-making abilities, some representation in leadership, etc. She still wrote that women were best suited for motherhood, that they aren't as strong as men - ideas that when people say them today I want to laugh in their faces. But again, she was extremely radical for her time.
Did I find reading this book to be an enjoyable experience? Not really. But was it a worthwhile one? Absolutely.... Read more ›
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