Professor Shottenkirk
PHIL 2101
November 11 2017
Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Women Many arguments have been put forth to justify man's cruelty over woman, and explain
how women are unable to attain their righteousness due to their insufficient strength. However,
Wollstonecraft repeats, if women have souls then there should be no fundamental difference
between men and women in pursuing and attaining virtue. Women aren't a group of short lived
things. Men complain about the silliness and unpredictable changes of women, but do not
comprehend that people themselves are responsible for the all-presence of women's servility;
from childhood, women are taught to be weak, soft, crafty, and proud only of their beauty.
Women are …show more content…
Many men act in an unphilosophical way;
they make an attempt to keep women’s good conduct by keeping them innocent like children.
Wollstonecraft turns to the subject of manners and education. The most perfect type of
education is one that encourages the individual to accomplish habits of virtue, or goodness, that
will declare him or her independent. Virtuous beings must derive their virtue from the exercise of
reason. Rousseau focused on applying that argument to men, and here Wollstonecraft applies it to women. She agrees that young children should be kept innocent, but the same can’t be said for
women. All human beings should be encouraged to think for themselves. She believes that
parents should prepare their children for the day they begin to think for themselves. Although,
she admits that people are always products of societies they live in, and educations should strive
towards making the individual as the most independent thinker