Description
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS A Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman : With Strictures On Political And Moral Subjects by Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft 1759-1797 published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792. It was written in reaction to Rousseaus Emile 1762, which argued that the purpose of a girls education was to make her useful to a man. Wollstonecraft offered a defence of womans ability to reason, given appropriate education. She argued that the limited education given to women made them docile and empty-headed playthings whose supposed fragility and coquetry were constructions that damaged not only the individual but society as a whole. Her radical prescription was for girls to be educated alongside boys and to the same standard, so that they were not left dependent on marriage for financial security. The independence of mind displayed in this polemic has ensured its place as a foundational work in the canon of feminist thought. For more information on this author, see http://orlando.cambridge.org/public/svPeople?person_id=wollmashow more