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Outline on The
Vindication of the Rights of Women, 1792
by Mary Wollstonecraft, 1759 - 1797
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External
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- Project: Can education
eliminate sexism? |
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- Project: Compare
the Ideas of Rousseau & Wolstonecraft on Gender & Education |
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Wollstonecraft was influenced by the Fr philosophers & especially
by Rousseau |
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Review Rousseau 1712
- 1778 |
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The Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) is a response
to Rousseau, Edmund Burke, & other men of the age |
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Review Edmund Burke 1729
- 1797 |
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In reading the Vindication today, it seems out-dated, old fashioned,
traditional; never-the-less, it touches many important contemporary issues
concerning gender & liberty |
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Reading the Vindication today, most readers are struck w/ how
relevant some parts are, yet how archaic others are |
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The quaintness of the Vindication reflects the enormous changes
in the value society places on women's reason today, as contrasted to the
late 18th C; but it also reflects the many ways in which issues of equality
of rights & duties are still w/ us today |
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The context of Wol's writing was one of an international, heated,
political debate |
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During the time of Wollstonecraft's Vindication, in 1789, Dr.
Richard Price, a Unitarian minister in England, preached a sermon "On
the Love of Country." |
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In Price's sermon he congratulated the Fr National Assembly for the
Rev which had opened up new possibilities for religious & civil freedom |
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The Fr Assembly's "Declaration of the Rights of Man & of the
Citizen" was a landmark in world hist, especially following the 1776
Am Declaration of Independence |
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Price spoke of being a citizen of the world, w/ all the rights
that citizenship implied |
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Price developed his doctrine of perfectibility, that the world
can be made better through human effort |
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Price's doctrine of perfectibility held that the world can be better
through human effort & advocated theological & philosophical justification
for social reform, for striving in this world for social change |
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Burke argued in Reflections on the Fr Rev that society should
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allow men the rights of kings or allow liberty instead of authority |
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For Burke, to allow men the rights of kings, to substitute liberty
for authority, would result in chaos & war |
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Not all English writers agreed with Dr. Price on world citizenship
& universal human rights, & the responses to the sermon are better
known to history than the initial sermon itself |
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Edmund Burke, appalled at the allowing man the rights of
kings, allowing the institution of liberty at the expense of
traditional
authority, responded w/ his Reflections on the French Revolution |
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Burke argued that the overthrow of authority in Fr would bring on chaos
& disorder |
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Burke's arguments answered & denied Price's assertions of natural
rights & Price's doctrine of perfectibility |
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Thomas Paine responded to Burke's view on the limitation of
rights & liberty w/ The Rights of Man |
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Wollstonecraft responded to Burke's view on the limitation of
rights & liberty w/ A Vindication of the Rights of Men,
1790; followed by A Vindication of the Rights of Women, 1791/2 |
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Burke's & Paine's responses are today considered classics of political
philosophy. |
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Few have read Mary Wollstonecraft's initial answer to Burke in A
Vindication of the Rights of Men, published in 1790 |
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Wol followed this argument with another response in 1791, A Vindication
of the Rights of Woman |
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The 2nd ed. in 1792, included Wol's revisions, is the edition, in A
Vindication of the Rights of Woman, available today, Wol makes her
arguments about the need & value of female emancipation |
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Wollstonecraft's response to Burke was that she saw Burke as
separating love & respect, making them opposing principles |
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In A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Wol applied to the
situation of women the same Enlightenment principles as in Vindication
of the Rights of Men wherein all people inherit natural rights at birth |
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In her 1791-92 Vindication, now considered a classic of feminist
history, Wol argued primarily for the rights of woman to be educated |
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Through education would come emancipation |
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THE PERSONAL IS POLITICAL |
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Wol accepts that the home is the woman's domain, but she does
not isolate it from the public sphere |
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The public & private spheres are integrally connected because the
home is the foundation for social life |
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In defending this right, she accepts the definition of her time that
women's sphere is the home, but she does not isolate the home from public
life as many others did & as many still do |
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For Wol, the public life & domestic life are not separate, but
connected |
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US activists & feminists in the 60s & 70s promoted the realization
that 'the personal was political' |
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The home is important to Wol because it forms a foundation for the
social life, the public life |
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The state, the public life, enhances & serves both individuals
& the family |
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Men have duties in the family, too, & women have duties to the
state |
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GENDER SOCIALIZATION |
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While Wol would not have used the term "socialization," today we say
that much of Wol's work concerned the socialization of women |
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Wol was one of earliest thinkers to recognize the gender socialization
process |
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Wol believed that the woman who strengthens her body & develops
her mind will become the friend, not the dependent of man |
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Women appear inferior because of the way they are raised:
encouraged to demonstrate weak feminine virtues of gentleness, passivity,
submission & spaniel like affection |
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That women are inferior cannot be demonstrated as long as they are
held in a state of subjugation |
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Wol is consistent w/ Hobbes in that she allows that bodily strength
is given to men, but as for knowledge & virtue, women & men are
equal |
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As Hobbes says, strength is unimportant, for the weakest has
the cunning to kill the strongest |
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SUPERIORITY |
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Are men physically superior? |
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Women have approx 2/3s the mass of men |
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Women are expected to show dominance in endurance sports |
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Hand eye coordination of many sports may be function of early socialization:
e.g. throwing a ball |
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Women have a better search function, but could this be the result of
socialization? |
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Why are men physically bigger than women? |
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PERFECTIBILITY |
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The blood-letting of the Fr Revolution led Wol challenge her commitment
to the doctrine of perfectibility |
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Wol's visit to France in 1792, as her husband William Godwin
later wrote, challenged her own earlier arguments & resulted in more
reserved optimism |
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She published A Histl & Moral View of the Origin & Progress
of the Fr Rev, an attempt to reconcile her horror at the blood of the
Rev w/ her faith in perfectibility |
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Wol integrated into her political ethics an acknowledgment that along
w/ human potential for becoming good was also a potential for viciousness |
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But Wol remained confident that the essence of humanity was good, &
that even the "chaotic mass" could result in "a fairer govt" |
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CHILD REARING |
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One of the most controversial topics of the time, then as now, concerned
gender roles & raising children |
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Wol believed that if mothers wish to give daughters a dignity of character,
they should use a plan, the opposite of Rousseau's because if women
are bound, they will become weak |
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Rousseau's accusation that women have a fondness for dolls, dressing
& talking... these accusations are so ridiculous so as to not
merit a response |
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Yet we still debate these traditional male & female traits today |
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THE 'BONDS' OF MARRIAGE |
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Wol discussed how the "civil death" of women was written into
common law: property in relation to: name, freedom transfers to husband
on marriage, control of their own bodies |
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What are some examples of matrimonial civil death? |
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What are some examples of civil death in divorce? |
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What are some examples of civil death in widowhood? |
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CLASS & GENDER |
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Wol's argument was, in some respects, one of a gender based class analysis |
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Wol notes that wealthy women are no more free than poor women |
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Wol calls for middle class women to lead the emancipation |
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The middle class has generally lead social change |
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Rich women live only to amuse themselves |
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Burke had sympathy for aristocratic women, but Wol dismissed this as
selective reasoning |
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In this angry rebuttal of Burke, Wol, a member of Price's congregation,
argued for what she considered God given rights of civil and religious
liberty. . : |
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Wol spoke of the aristocracy that was being displaced in Fr as decadent |
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She criticized Burke's sympathy for the women of the displaced aristocracy
in Fr as selective, ignoring the many more thousands of women who suffered
under the old regime |
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"Your tears are reserved, very naturally considering
your character, for the declamation of the theater, or for the downfall
of queens, whose rank alters the nature of folly, and throws a graceful
veil over vices that degrade humanity; whilst the distress of many industrious
mothers, whose helpmates have been torn from them, and the hungry cry of
helpless babes, were vulgar sorrows that could not move your commiseration,
though they might extort an alms"
(from
A Vindication of the Rights of Men, 1790).
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Poor women have added burden of domestic drudgery |
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While the women's movement in America has been attacked as being
white, & upper class, in truth, it is a middle class movement |
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Yet Wol still sees a place for servants for middle class Women |
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Which class leads change in society?
Where does change come from w/in society? |
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SUFFRAGE & EDUCATION |
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Wol also called for universal suffrage & universal education, which
later, for leaders like Jefferson, became logically inseparable |
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There should be public education of men & women, free & open
to all classes |
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Yet Wol does support what we would call "tracking" after the
age of nine |
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Essentially, Wol is advocating that one engage in personal dev, then
political development |
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Must we achieve a level of individuation (education, experience, travel,
independence, etc.) before we can become a ‘citizen’ or part of society? |
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Do we need to have children to experience adulthood, i.e. to be fully
individuated? |
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As Wol recognized, it is surprising that Rousseau, who understood
socialization & education so well, did not see its effect on women |
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Women should achieve intellectual equality w/ men, & then strive
for political equality |
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Wol believed people should experience personal development,
& then political dev. Wol saw a hierarchy of roles |
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DUTY |
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The first duty of a woman is to herself, then to motherhood,
then as a citizen |
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Are these three spheres of life ( individuation, motherhood, citizenship
) in conflict? |
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Here, Wol presupposes the ideas that: “It takes a village to
raise a child.” because child rearing is a male task too; child rearing
benefits all of society; & should be socialized beyond family |
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Wol's view of women & motherhood has many qualities that today
we would see as "feminist" & "traditional" |
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The care of children needs to be properly understood & re-examined:
meek wives are foolish mothers; women should breast feed |
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Yet women should always direct their energy to being wives & mothers:
“whatever tends to incapacitate the maternal character takes woman out
of her sphere.” |
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Is parenting is part of human nature, i.e. natural or is it learned/socialized? |
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What will the family w/ children look like in the the 2010s?
the 2040s? |
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Can we say that “whatever tends to incapacitate paternal character
takes Man out of his sphere”? |
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For the success of marriage, & society, men should practice
chastity & fidelity as required of women |
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She also acknowledges that women are sexual beings, but so are men |
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Thus female chastity and fidelity, necessary for a stable marriage,
require male chastity and fidelity too |
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Men are required, as much as women, to put duty over sexual pleasure |
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Perhaps her experience with Gilbert Imlay, father of her elder daughter,
made this point more clear to her, as he was not able to live up to this
standard |
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Control over family size, for instance, serves the individuals in the
family, strengthens the family, & thus serves the public interest through
raising better citizens |
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DUTY & SENSIBILITY |
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Wol prefaces the Romantic Movement in that she wants the integration
of reason & feeling |
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But putting duty above pleasure did not mean that feelings are not
important |
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The goal, for Wol's ethics, is to bring feeling and thought into harmony |
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The harmony of feeling and thought reason |
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Reason was of primary importance to the Enlightenment philosophers,
a company to which Wol belongs |
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But her celebration of nature, of feelings, of "sympathy," also make
her a bridge to the Romantic philosophy and literary movements which follow |
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Her younger daughter much later married one of the best known Romantic
poets, Percy Shelley |
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See Also, the Romantic Movement |
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Women's absorption in purely sensing & feeling degrades them |
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Wol sees women's absorption in such purely sensing and feeling activities
as fashion and beauty denigrates their reason, |
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For Wol, sensibility makes women less able to maintain their part in
the marriage partnership and reduces their effectiveness as educators of
children. & thus makes them less dutiful as citizens |
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Wol's advocacy of combining feeling & reason made all people capable
of reason & thus deserving of liberty & eligible for citizenship,
contra Rousseau who denied that women were capable of reason & thus
ineligible for citizenship |
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In bringing together feeling and thought, rather than separating them
and dividing one for woman and one for man, . . |
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Wol was also providing a critique of Rousseau, another defender of
personal rights but one who did not believe that such individual liberty
was for women |
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Woman, for Rousseau, was incapable of reason, and only man could be
trusted to exercise thought and reason |
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Thus, for Rousseau, women could not be citizens, only men could |
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Only when women & men are equally free & both fulfill their
duties to family & state, can there be true freedom |
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But Wol, in her Vindication, makes clear her position: only when woman
and man are equally free, and woman and man are equally dutiful in exercise
of their responsibilities to family and state, can there be true freedom. |
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The essential reform necessary for such equality, Wol is convinced,
is: |
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- equal & quality ed for woman |
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- an ed which recognizes her duty to ed her own children |
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- to be an equal partner with her husband in the family |
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- to recognize that woman, like man, is a creature of both thought
& feeling: a creature of reason |
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Why are Men bigger
than Women?
Study anthropology, feminist anthropology, evolutionary sociology
The Naked Ape
The Sex Contract
Guns, Germs, & Steel
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Examples of civil
death in marriage
“The Trade in Women” Firestone
Dowry: gift from family of bride to groom: pmt for taking
on burden of wife
Bridal Price: gift from family of groom to family of bride
Arranged marriages
Give up name in marriage
Give up possession in marriage
Rule of thumb
Today?
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Examples of Civil
Death in Divorce
Div, separation, annulment, etc. very rare in Wollstonecraft's time
At that time, Men got the children
Today
Women get children
Women more likely to end up econ worse off
Men more likely to end up better off
Why do Women get the children?
Combination of Men shirking responsibility
Men's ability to re-marry
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Examples of Civil
Death in Widowhood
Dower: contemporary common law:
Women has right to 1/3 of Men's wealth
Men could not transfer wealth w/o Women's consent
Estate by Curtesy: Man has right to Women's wealth
Today, many states have community property laws
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Which class leads
change in society?
Where does change come from w/in society?
Lower: ???? Various slave & peasant revolts
Middle: 1848: Seneca Falls? 1900s: labor rights;
1950-60s: civil rights & 1960’s Women's rights;
1960s: Env; 1960s: Vietnam
Upper: 1776? 1860s: Civil War?
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Must we achieve a
level of individuation (education, experience, travel, independence, etc.)
before we can become a ‘citizen’ or part of society?
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Do we need to have
children to experience adulthood, i.e. to be fully individuated?
Yes & No!
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Are these three spheres
of life ( Individuation, Motherhood, Citizenship ) in conflict?
Yes, definitely, but it seems that following the progression suggested
by Wollstonecraft is good advice
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Is parenting is part
of human nature, i.e. natural or is it learned/socialized?
Socialized
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What will the family
w/ children look like in the the 2010s? the 2040s?
That is, what will the family look like for you all & for your children?
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Can we say that “whatever
tends to incapacitate paternal character takes Man out of his sphere”?
Men now enjoy raising children.
While no one likes the drudgery, i.e. diapers, tantrums, etc., any
parent knows you must take the good w/ the bad
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