A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Also known as A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, Rights of Woman
Mary Wollstonecraft's 1792 essay arguing that women deserve the same education and moral standing as men.
At a glance
Key ideas
A rational education for women, Against Rousseau, One moral law …
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- Wollstonecraft answers 18th-century writers who held that women did not need a full education.
- Women, she argues, seem less rational only because men have refused to educate them.
- They matter to the nation because they raise its children and could be their husbands' companions rather than mere wives.
- She calls for equality in moral responsibility and access to education, and attacks the sexual double standard.
Why it matters
- It is counted among the founding texts of feminist philosophy and influenced the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention.
Key facts
- Author
- Mary Wollstonecraft1
- Published
- 1792, London, by Joseph Johnson2
- Prompted by
- Talleyrand's 1791 report to France's National Assembly, which said women should receive only a domestic education; she dedicated the book to him1
- Length
- Almost 87,000 words1
- Editions
- A second edition in 1792, in which she strengthened the case for equality; several American editions; a French translation1
- Second volume
- Never written; Godwin published her notes for it, "Hints", among her posthumous works1
- Reception
- Reviewed favourably when it appeared; she was reviled only after Godwin's 1798 Memoirs revealed her private life1
Key ideas
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A rational education for women1
Without educated women, and so educated mothers, society will stop progressing in knowledge and virtue.
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Against Rousseau1
She attacks his argument in Emile that women should be educated for the pleasure of men.
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One moral law1
Men and women are equal before God and bound by the same virtues, so men too must be modest and faithful.
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National education1
Free, co-educational day schools, so that men and women are "educated after the same model".
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Against excess sensibility1
Women ruled by "every momentary gust of feeling" cannot think rationally; reason and feeling should inform each other.
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