Mary Wollstonecraft, 1759-1797, was an English feminist who, in 1792, published “The Vindication of the Rights of Woman”, a persuasive essay (Fleming, Hoover, Peterfreund, & Rogers, 2006). Wollstonecraft, a product of the Restoration, was self-educated and the founder of English feminism (Fleming,et al.). During the Restoration, the English monarchy reestablished after a twenty year era of civil war and strict Puritan regulation, so Wollstonecraft’s ideas were especially out of character for this time (Fleming, et al.). Although her ideas were out of character, she was a staid advocator for equal education between the sexes, and her works became a dogma of the women’s rights movement (Kreis, 2012). With her command of equality, she also forced
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Wollstonecraft, incensed by this idea, wanted women to have the same rights as male citizens (Carson, 2013). As a member of the period’s radical group that searched for social refinement, Wollstonecraft wanted the idea that emotion was only privately shown by women and publicly shown by men ended, and her works were an example of this belief (Carson, 2013). During this time period, women were not educated in the way that Wollstonecraft believed was so crucial, for she thought the education that women and girls received forced them to live in the domestic sphere. (Harris, n.d.) In “The Vindication of the Rights of Woman”, she convicts the common idea of the period that women should maintain their looks, while men received an education, for this idea breeds the image in women that their looks portray the image of social importance, an idea common at the time (Harris, n.d.). Her view that education would not only allow the advancing of knowledge during the era, but it would also give women the ability of bettering themselves as mothers, a task that was highly important during the time, was spoken clearly through her essay and demanded attention from her readers (Harris, n.d.) In her introduction, Wollstonecraft states that the novels of
Wollstonecraft, incensed by this idea, wanted women to have the same rights as male citizens (Carson, 2013). As a member of the period’s radical group that searched for social refinement, Wollstonecraft wanted the idea that emotion was only privately shown by women and publicly shown by men ended, and her works were an example of this belief (Carson, 2013). During this time period, women were not educated in the way that Wollstonecraft believed was so crucial, for she thought the education that women and girls received forced them to live in the domestic sphere. (Harris, n.d.) In “The Vindication of the Rights of Woman”, she convicts the common idea of the period that women should maintain their looks, while men received an education, for this idea breeds the image in women that their looks portray the image of social importance, an idea common at the time (Harris, n.d.). Her view that education would not only allow the advancing of knowledge during the era, but it would also give women the ability of bettering themselves as mothers, a task that was highly important during the time, was spoken clearly through her essay and demanded attention from her readers (Harris, n.d.) In her introduction, Wollstonecraft states that the novels of