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 Mary
Wollstonecraft, (1759-1797),
was born in London the daughter of a handkerchief maker and suffered
a childhood of privation and deliberate belittlement. She educated
herself by studying literary and philosophical works on her own
at home. For a short while from 1784, she ran a school in Newington
Green, near Hackney, with her sister Eliza and friend Fanny Blood.
Here she met Richard Price, a minister at the Dissenting Chapel,
who rejected the notions of original sin and eternal damnation,
for which he was often labeled and Atheist. Wollstonecraft's
Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1786) a pamphlet
which attacked the traditional teaching methods of 18th Century
Europe and suggested new areas of study should be open to girls,
was written from her experiences at this time. In 1789, Price
preached a sermon praising the French Revolution. Edmund Burke,
horrified by Price's assertion that the people had a right to
remove a bad king, wrote a reply in fulsome defense of monarchy.
In return, Wollstonecraft produced a pamphlet called A Vindication
of the Rights of Man which condemned the slave trade,
the game laws and way that the poor were treated in addition
to refuting Burke's notions on governance. This pamphlet attracted
the notice of Tom Paine, William Godwin and William Blake, among
other radical thinkers. In 1791 Tom Paine was forced to flee
England after the first part of his radical tract, Rights of
Man, was published. The following year, Wollstonecraft published
A Vindication of the Rights of Women. In it, she explains
her aim as "to be useful", and goes on to encourage
the fuller participation of women in society by advocating greater
freedom of education and upbringing. Women "docile and attentive
to their looks to the exclusion of all else" are not, she
argues, what society best needs. "Women may be convenient
slaves, but slavery will have its constant effect, degrading
the master and the abject dependent."
The radical importance of this magnificent text, which "loudly
demands JUSTICE for one-half of the human race" is hard
to over-estimate. Only
the Author's introduction and her dedication, a letter to French
Revolutionist Talleyrand which shocked some of her contemporaries,
is printed here: the whole text may be downloaded as a pdf on
the left.
A
VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN
Mary Wollstonecraft
AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION
After considering the historic page,
and viewing the living world with anxious solicitude, the most
melancholy emotions of sorrowful indignation have depressed my
spirits, and I have sighed when obliged to confess that either
Nature has made a great difference between man and man, or that
the civilisation which has hitherto taken place in the world
has been very partial. I have turned over various books written
on the subject of education, and patiently observed the conduct
of parents and the management of schools; but what has been the
result?--a profound conviction that the neglected education of
my fellow-creatures is the grand source of the misery I deplore,
and that women, in particular, are rendered weak and wretched
by a variety of concurring causes, originating from one hasty
conclusion. The conduct and manners of women, in fact, evidently
prove that their minds are not in a healthy state; for, like
the flowers which are planted in too rich a soil, strength and
usefulness are sacrificed to beauty; and the flaunting leaves,
after having pleased a fastidious eye, fade, disregarded on the
stalk, long before the season when they ought to have arrived
at maturity. One cause of this barren blooming I attribute to
a false system of education, gathered from the books written
on this subject by men who, considering females rather as women
than human creatures, have been more anxious to make them alluring
mistresses than affectionate wives and rational mothers; and
the understanding of the sex has been so bubbled by this specious
homage, that the civilised women of the present century, with
a few exceptions, are only anxious to inspire love, when they
ought to cherish a nobler ambition, and by their abilities and
virtues exact respect.
In a treatise, therefore, on female rights
and manners, the works which have been particularly written for
their improve- ment must not be overlooked, especially when it
is asserted, in direct terms, that the minds of women are enfeebled
by false refinement; that the books of instruction, written by
men of genius, have had the same tendency as more frivolous productions;
and that, in the true style of Mahometanism, they are treated
as a kind of subordinate beings, and not as a part of the human
species, when improvable reason is allowed to be the dignified
distinction which raises men above the brute creation, and puts
a natural sceptre in a feeble hand.
Yet, because I am a woman, I would not
lead my readers to suppose that I mean violently to agitate the
contested question respecting the quality or inferiority of the
sex; but as the subject lies in my way, and I cannot pass it
over without subjecting the main tendency of my reasoning to
misconstruction, I shall stop a moment to deliver, in a few words,
my opinion. In the government of the physical world it is observable
that the female in point of strength is, in general, inferior
to the male. This is the law of Nature; and it does not appear
to be suspended or abrogated in favour of woman. A degree of
physical superiority cannot, therefore, be denied, and it is
a noble prerogative! But not content with this natural preeminence,
men endeavour to sink us still lower, merely to render us alluring
objects for a moment; and women, intoxicated by the adoration
which men, under the influence of their senses, pay them, do
not seek to obtain a durable interest in their hearts, or to
become the friends of the fellow-creatures who find amusement
in their society.
I am aware of an obvious inference. From
every quarter have I heard exclamations against masculine women,
but where are they to be found? If by this appellation men mean
to inveigh against, their ardour in hunting, shooting, and gaming,
I shall most cordially join in the cry; but if it be against
the imitation of manly virtues, or, more properly speaking, the
attainment of those talents and virtues, the exercise of which
ennobles the human character, and which raises females in the
scale of animal being, when they are comprehensively termed mankind,
all those who view them with a philosophic eye must, I should
think, wish with me, that they may every day grow more and more
masculine.
This discussion naturally divides the
subject. I shall first consider women in the gland light of human
creatures, who in common with men, are placed on this earth to
unfold their faculties; and afterwards I shall more particularly
point out their peculiar designation.
I wish also to steer clear of an error
which many respectable writers have fallen into; for the instruction
which has hitherto been addressed to women, has rather been applicable
to ladies, if the little indirect advice that is scattered through
"Sandford and Merton" be excepted; but, addressing
my sex in a firmer tone, I pay particular attention to those
in the middle class, because they appear to be in the most natural
state. Perhaps the seeds of false refinement, immorality, and
vanity, have ever been shed by the great. Weak, artificial beings,
raised above the common wants and affections of their race, in
a premature unnatural manner, undermine the very foundation of
virtue, and spread corruption through the whole mass of society!
As a class of mankind they have the strongest claim to pity;
the education of the rich tends to render them vain and helpless,
and the unfolding mind is not strengthened by the practice of
those duties which dignify the human character. They only live
to amuse themselves, and by the same law which in Nature invariably
produces certain effects, they soon only afford barren amusement.
But as I purpose taking a separate view
of the different ranks of society, and of the moral character
of women in each, this hint is for the present sufficient; and
I have only alluded to the subject because it appears to me to
be the very essence of an introduction to give a cursory account
of the contents of the work it introduces.
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 earnestly wish
to point out in what true dignity and human happiness consists.
I wish to persuade women to endeavour to acquire strength, both
of mind and body, and to convince them that the soft phrases,
susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement
of taste, are almost synonymous with epithets of weakness, and
that those beings who are only the objects of pity, and that
kind of love which has been termed its sister, will soon become
objects of contempt.
Dismissing, then, those pretty feminine
phrases, which the men condescendingly use to soften our slavish
dependence, and despising that weak elegancy of mind, exquisite
sensibility, and sweet docility of manners, supposed to be the
sexual charac- teristics of the weaker vessel, I wish to show
that elegance is inferior to virtue, that the first object of
laudable ambition is to obtain a character as a hurnan being,
regardless of the distinction of sex, and that secondary views
should be brought to this simple touchstone.
This is a rough sketch of my plan; and
should I express my conviction with the energetic emotions that
I feel whenever I think of the subject, the dictates of experience
and reflection will be felt by some of my readers. Animated by
this important object, I shall disdain to cull my phrases or
polish my style. I aim at being useful, and sincerity will render
me unaffected; for, wishing rather to persuade by the force of
my arguments than dazzle by the elegance of my language, I shall
not waste my time in rounding periods, or in fabricating the
turgid bombast of artificial feelings, which, coming from the
head, never reach the heart. I shall be employed about things,
not words! and, anxious to render my sex more respectable members
of society, I shall try to avoid that flowery diction which has
slided from essays into novels, and from novels into familiar
letters and conversation.
These pretty superlatives, dropping glibly
from the tongue, vitiate the taste, and create a kind of sickly
delicacy that tums away from simple unadorned truth; and a deluge
of false sentiments and overstretched feelings, stifling the
natural emotions of the heart, render the domestic pleasures
insipid, that ought to sweeten the exercise of those severe duties,
which educate a rational and immortal being for a nobler field
of action.
The education of women has of late been
more attended to than formerly; yet they are still reckoned a
frivolous sex, and ridiculed or pitied by the writers who endeavour
by satire or instruction to improve them. It is acknowledged
that they spend many of the first years of their lives in acquiring
a smattering of accomplishments; meanwhile strength of body and
mind are sacrificed to libertine notions of beauty, to the desire
of establishing themselves--the only way women can nse in the
world--by marriage. And this desire making mere animals of them,
when they marry they act as such children may be expected to
act,--they dress, they paint, and nickname God's creatures. Surely
these weak beings are only fit for a seraglio! Can they be expected
to govern a family with judgment, or take care of the poor babes
whom they bring into the world?
If, then, it can be fairly deduced from
the present conduct of the sex, from the prevalent fondness for
pleasure which takes place of ambition and those nobler passions
that open and enlarge the soul, that the instruction which women
have hitherto received has only tended, with the constituion
of civil society, to render them insignificant objects of desire
-- mere propagators of fools! -- if it can be proved that in
aiming to accomplish them, without cultivating their understandings,
they are taken out of their sphere of duties, and made ridiculous
and useless when the short-lived bloom of beauty is over,[1]
I presume that rational men will excuse me for endeavouring to
persuade them to become more masculine and respectable.
Indeed the word masculine is only a bugbear;
there is little reason to fear that women will acquire too much
courage or fortitude, for their apparent inferiority with respect
to bodily strength must render them in some degree dependent
on men in the various relations of life; but why should it be
increased by prejudices that give a sex to virtue, and confound
simple truths with sensual reveries?
Women are, in fact, so much degraded
by mistaken notions of female excellence, that I do not mean
to add a paradox when I assert that this artificial weakness
produces a propensity to tyrannise, and gives birth to cunning,
the natural opponent of strength, which leads them to play off
those contemptible infantine airs that undermine esteem even
whilst they excite desire. Let men become more chaste and modest,
and if women do not grow wiser in the same ratio, it will be
clear that they have weaker understandings. It seems scarcely
necessary to say that I now speak of the sex in general. Many
individuals have more sense than their male relatives; and, as
nothing preponderates where there is a constant struggle for
an equilibrium without it has naturally more gravity, some women
govern their husbands without degrading themselves, because intellect
will always govern.
NOTES
[1] A lively writer (I cannot recollect
his name) asks what business women turned of forty have to do
in the world?
dedication:
TO M. TALLEYRAND-PERIGORD,
Late Bishop of Autun
SIR,--Having read with great pleasure
a pamphlet which you have lately published, I dedicate this volume
to you--the first dedication that I have ever written, to induce
you to read it with attention; and, because I think that you
will understand me, which I do not suppose many pert witlings
will, who may ridicule the arguments they are unable to answer.
But, sir I carry my respect for your understanding still farther;
so far that I am confident you will not throw my work aside,
and hastily conclude that I am in the wrong, because you did
not view the subject in the same light yourself. And, pardon
my frankness, but I must observe, that you treated it in too
cursory a manner, contented to consider it as it had been considered
formerly, when the rights of man, not to advert to woman, were
trampled on as chimerical--I call upon you, therefore, now to
weigh what I have advanced respecting the rights of woman and
national education; and I call with the firm tone of humanity,
for my arguments, sir, are dictated by a disinterested spirit--I
plead for my sex, not for myself. Independence I have long considered
as the grand blessing of life, the basis of every virtue; and
independence I will ever secure by contracting my wants, though
I were to live on a barren heath.
It is then an affection for the whole
human race that makes my pen dart rapidly along to support what
I believe to be the cause of virtue; and the same motive leads
me earnestly to wish to see woman placed in a station in which
she would advance, instead of retarding, the progress of those
glorious principles that give a substance to morality. My opinion,
indeed, respecting the rights and duties of woman seems to flow
so naturally from these simple
principles, that I think it scarcely possible but that some of
the enlarged minds who formed your admirable constitution will
coincide with me.
In France there is undoubtedly a more
general diffusion of knowledge than in any part of the European
world, and I attribute it, in a great measure, to the social
intercourse which has long subsisted between the sexes. It is
true--I utter my sentiments with freedom--that in France the
very essence of sensuality has been extracted to regale the voluptuary,
and a kind of sentimental lust has prevailed, which, together
with the system of duplicity that the whole tenor of their political
and civil government taught, have given a sinister sort of sagacity
to the French character, properly termed finesse, from which
naturally flow a polish of manners that injures the substance
by hunting sincerity out of society. And modesty, the fairest
garb of virtue! has been more-grossly insulted in France than
even in England, till their women have treated as prudish that
attention to decency which brutes instinctively observe.
Manners and morals are so nearly allied
that they have often been confounded; but, though the former
should only be the natural reflection of the latter, yet, when
various causes have produced factitious and corrupt manners,
which are very early caught, morality becomes an empty name.
The personal reserve, and sacred respect for cleanliness and
delicacy in domestic life, which French women almost despise,
are the graceful pillars of modesty; but, far from despising
them, if the pure flame of patriotism have reached their bosoms,
they should labour to improve the morals of their fellow-citizens,
by teaching men, not only to respect modesty in women, but to
acquire it themselves, as the only way to merit their esteem.
Contending for the rights of woman, my
main argument is built on this simple principle, that if she
be not prepared by education to become the companion of man,
she will stop the progress of knowledge and virtue; for truth
must be common to all, or it will be inefficacious with respect
to its influence on general practice. And how can woman be expected
to co-operate unless she knows why she ought to be virtuous?
unless freedom strengthens her reason till she comprehends her
duty, and see in what manner it is connected with her real good.
If children are to be educated to understand the true principle
of patriotism, their mother must be a patriot; and the love of
mankind, from which an orderly train of virtues spring, can only
be produced by considering the moral and civil interest of mankind;
but the education and situation of woman at present shuts her
out from such investigations.
In this work I have produced many arguments,
which to me were conclusive, to prove that the prevailing notion
respecting a sexual character was subversive of morality, and
I have contended, that to render the human body and mind more
perfect, chastity must more universally prevail, and that chastity
will never be respected in the male world till the person of
a woman is not, as it were, idolised, when little virtue or sense
embellish it with the grand traces of mental beauty, or the interesting
simplicity of affection.
Consider, sir, dispassionately these
observations, for a glimpse of this truth seemed to open before
you when you observed, "that to see one-half of the human
race excluded by the other from all participation of government
was a political phenomenon that, according to abstract principles,
it was impossible to explain." If so, on what does your
constitution rest? If the abstract rights of man will bear discussion
and explanation, those of woman, by a parity of reasoning, will
not shrink from the same test; though a different opinion prevails
in this country, built on the very arguments which you use to
justify the oppression of woman -- prescription.
Consider--I address you as a legislator--whether,
when men contend for their freedom, and to be allowed to judge
for themselves respecting their own happiness, it be not inconsistent
and unjust to subjugate women, even though you firmly believe
that you are acting in the manner best calculated to promote
their happiness ? Who made man the exclusive judge, if woman
partake with him of the gift of reason?
In this style argue tyrants of every
denomination, from the weak king to the weak father of a family;
they are all eager to crush reason, yet always assert that they
usurp its throne only to be useful. Do you not act a similar
part when you force all women, by denying them civil and political
rights, to remain immured in their families groping in the dark?
for surely, sir, you will not assert that a duty can be binding
which is not founded on reason? If, indeed, this be their destination,
arguments may be drawn from reason; and thus augustly supported,
the more understanding women acquire, the more they will be attached
to their duty -- comprehending it -- for unless they comprehend
it, unless their morals be fixed on the same immutable principle
as those of man, no authority can make them discharge it in a
virtuous manner. They may be convenient slaves, but slavery will
have its constant effect, degrading the master and the abject
dependent.
But if women are to be excluded, without
having a voice, from participation of the natural rights of mankind,
prove first, to ward off the charge of injustice and inconsistency,
that they want reason, else this flaw in your NEW CONSTITUTION
will ever show that man must, in some shape, act like a tyrant,
and tyranny, in whatever part of society it rears its brazen
front, will ever undermine morality.
I have repeatedly asserted, and produced
what appeared to me irrefragable arguments drawn from matters
of fact to prove my assertion, that women cannot by force be
confined to domestic concerns; for they will, however ignorant,
inter-meddle with more weighty affairs, neglecting private duties
only to disturb, by cunning tricks, the orderly plans of reason
which rise above their comprehension.
Besides, whilst they are only made to
acquire personal accomplishments, men will seek for pleasure
in variety, and faithless husbands will make faithless wives;
such ignorant beings, indeed, will be very excusable when, not
taught to respect public good, nor allowed any civil rights,
they attempt to do themselves justice by retaliation.
The box of mischief thus opened in society,
what is to preserve private virtue, the only security of public
freedom and universal happiness?
Let there be then no coercion established
in society, and the common law of gravity prevailing, the sexes
will fall into their proper places. And now that more equitable
laws are forming your citizens, marriage may become more sacred;
your young men may choose wives from motives of affection, and
your maidens allow love to root out vanity.
The father of a family will not then
weaken his constitution and debase his sentiments by visiting
the harlot, nor forget, in obeying the call of appetite, the
purpose for which it was implanted. And the mother will not neglect
her children to practise the arts of coquetry, when sense and
modesty secure her the friendship of her husband.
But, till men become attentive to the
duty of a father, it is vain to expect women to spend that time
in their nursery which they, " wise in their generation,"
choose to spend at their glass; for this exertion of cunning
is only an instinct of nature to enable them to obtain indirectly
a little of that power of which they are unjustly denied a share;
for, if women are not permitted to enjoy legitimate rights, they
will render both men and themselves vicious to obtain illicit
privileges.
I wish, sir, to set some investigations
of this kind afloat in France; and should they lead to a confirmation
of my principles when your constitution is revised, the Rights
of Woman may be respected, if it be fully proved that reason
calls for this respect, and loudly demands JUSTICE for one-half
of the human race.
I am, Sir,
Yours respectfully,
M. W.
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