The Power of Education: Mary Wollstonecraft

The power of education: Mary Wollstonecraft Mary Wollstonecraft believed that there was more that women could do to improve the way they were view’d by society. The work that was produced by Wollstonecraft improved immensely the roles of women. The roles of women in the 18th century were very limited, women had no voice, “A Vindication of the Rights of Women” was the reason for the change in social roles. The fact that Wollstonecraft was able to have such an impact on all these women, and express that they truly played an important role on society during this time was something no one had done before. In “A Vindication of the Rights of Women” Wollstonecraft expresses that it is not fair that women are always being judged by men, and she questions why men have the power to decide what is right, wrong and what their roles in society are. “Who made man the exclusive judge, if woman partake with him the gift of reason?” page 305, Wollstonecraft believed that like men women had the right to express what made them happy and to conquer happiness without the control of a man. If a man had the complete power to decide what he wanted in order to achieve the ideal life, why couldn’t women do the same? and was it correct to decide for women what made them happy and just how to live life?. Women have such a great potential to contribute so much to society and the reason why they had not done so was because they were not able to expand.

Andrade 2 One of the main points of Wollstonecraft that truly stood out to me was that she believed that the ignorance of people was the reason why they were so limited on moving forward, and becoming successful human beings. “Faithless husbands will make faithless wives; such ignorant beings...” page 307. Since men were very much closed minded about their perception on what women could truly do there was no way that women could show just what they were capable of. In order to become successful at something one must have faith that it can be