Quoc Nguyen

Mary WollstonecraffWomens ideals in Enlightenment Period

Early women rights philosopher
Quoc Nguyen 2/19/2014

Quoc Nguyen

Quoc Nguyen
The eighteen century was a significant era that marked one of the most distinguished timeline of human critical thinking- the Enlightenment period. Through letters between philosophers and published books of different scholars, the idea of reasoning opened up a new stage of humans critical thinking: freedom of mind, education chase and economic development. This paper examine the relevance and the impact of Mary Wollstonecrafts work with various aspects of Enlightenment thought by looking at her life events, her works- A Vindication of the Rights of Women- as an imminent example, and the relationship between those works and the ideals of Enlightenment thought- development of education ideal for women- especially rational thinking and expansion of the equality ideal into gender equality. In order to study Mary Wollstonecrafts work, Mary Wollstonecrafts life events are the first source of reference for her work inspiration. Mary Wollstonecraft was born on 1759 in a family of seven. Her father inherited quite a nice fortune from her grandfather such that the first few years of her life were so pleasant. Despite the inheritance, her fathers lifestyle and spending habit destroyed his inherited wealth that led to the downfall of the family. His chief characteristic was his instability. He could persevere in nothing. 1 After five early happy years, Mary Wollstonecrafts family wealth vanished to the ground hence led to her poor childhood time. Her father was a man of selfish, hot-tempered despot whose natural bad qualities were aggravated by his dissipated habits. 2 Coupled with the business failure, Marys father was angry all the time that his hot-temper led him to violence action with his subjects: Mrs. Wollstonecraft- Marys mother, the dog and even the children. Even though Marys mother was a victim of the violence, she identified herself with her father in terms of child discipline. Mary stated that continual restraint in the most trivial matters, unconditional submission to orders, which as a mere child I soon discovered to be unreasonable, because inconsistent and contradicto ry.3 Contradicted from her parents dictatorship and vagary, Mary had developed her characteristic into an independent, authority of her family in which she based on her own judgment and sympathy towards others. Her passion toward writing started at the age of nineteen when her family moved to Walworth. From here, she began a long and independent career of writing that led her towards the works of A Vindication of the Rights of Women .

Elizabeth Robins Pennell, Mary Wollstonecraft, Project Gutenberg: 2009, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22800/22800-h/22800-h.htm. (accessed February 18, 2014) . 2 Elizabeth Robins Pennell, Mary Wollstonecraft, Project Gutenberg: 2009, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22800/22800-h/22800-h.htm. (accessed February 18, 2014). 3 Elizabeth Robins Pennell, Mary Wollstonecraft, Project Gutenberg: 2009, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22800/22800-h/22800-h.htm. (accessed February 18, 2014).

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Another life event that affected Marys works was the dead of one of h er best friends- Frances Blood or Fanny. They first met and became close friends in the year of 1775 when Marys family moved to Newington Butts at the south end of London. They had many things in common, including family situations, horrible marriage, and characteristic as well. Moreover, as Mary moved on with her life, Fanny went through a terrified time with consecutive misfortunes. Through her troubles, Mary, who had given her the warmest and best, because the first, love of her life, was her faithful ally and comforter. Indeed, her friendship grew warmer with Fannys increasing misfortunes. 4 With an unrequited bonding throughout the time, Fannys dead was devastated and had a huge impact on Marys career path going forward. The last meeting between the two was on the autumn of 1785 in Lisbon, where Fanny was in a weak stage that passed away shortly. The incident changed Marys critical thinking and understanding the role of women as well as the role of education. She was admitted, he writes, to th e very best company the English colony afforded. She made many profound observations on the character of the natives and the baleful effects of superstition. 5 The two main incidents would later be reflected upon her works- notably Thought on the Education of Daughters: with reflections on female conduct, in the more important duties of life and A Vindication of the Rights of Women . Mary Wollstonecrafts works reflected upon her rough childhood period and her friendship that led to the focus of womens education, religion, sensibility and class. Marys earliest work- Thought on the Education of Daughters: with reflections on female conduct, in the more important duties of life - clearly demonstrated some of the early foundation for womens rationing of education. She strongly suggested a child to have a strong education: Whenever a child asks a question, it should always have a reasonable answer given it. 6 Also, she encouraged parents to seek out to children in terms of learning about the nature world an d being taught to think. The first things, then, that children ought to be encouraged to observe, are a brief adherence to truth 7 I wish them to be taught to

Elizabeth Robins Pennell, Mary Wollstonecraft, Project Gutenberg: 2009, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22800/22800-h/22800-h.htm. (accessed February 18, 2014). 5 Elizabeth Robins Pennell, Mary Wollstonecraft, Project Gutenberg: 2009, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22800/22800-h/22800-h.htm. (accessed February 18, 2014). 6 Thoughts on the Education of Daughters: With Reflections on Female Conduct, in the More Important Duties of Life, Mary Wollstonecraft, J. Johnson, 1787, digitized on August 2 nd, 2007, Google Ebook, http://books.google.com/books?id=hVIJAAAAQAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s. ) 7 Thoughts on the Education of Daughters: With Reflections on Female Conduct, in the More Important Duties of Life, Mary Wollstonecraft, J. Johnson, 1787, digitized on August 2 nd, 2007, Google Ebook, http://books.google.com/books?id=hVIJAAAAQAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s. )

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think8 Besides children, Mary also proposed the idea of education for women as necessary. She firmly believed that with education, women could better serve as a household manager and they should not neglect their main taskfamily care. To prepare a woman to fulfill the important duties of a wife and mother, are certainly the objects that should be in view during the early period of life; yet accomplishments are most thought of 9. Womens education was later expanded in Marys famous work- A Vindication of the Rights of Women . The ideals of women were emphasized on the premises that women needed education to be able to contribute to the society and women were able to think rationally thus which lead to the need of education. As she stated, 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; for truth must be common to all, or it will be inefficacious with respect to its influence on general practice 10 Mary considered the roots of lack of women education was due to the nature of women and the perception of women in comparison to man. Women are told from infancy, are taught from example of their mother, what a little knowledge of human weakness, just termed cunning, softness or temper, outward obedience and a scrupulous attention to a puerile kind of propriety, will obtain for them the protection of a man, and should they be beautiful, everything else is needless, for, at least, twenty years of their life11 She also implied that women were becoming more and more dependent to the man as time passed by due to this effect. The dependency of women would lead to a total loss of control over themselves. Educate women are like men, the more they resemble our sex the less power will they have over us. This is the very point I am at. I do not wish them to have power over men, but over themselves
12

She hinted that with

education, women could pursue different field of interests and became an independent subject of the man while overachieved the expectation men placed on them. Women might certainly study the art of healing, and be physicians as well as nurses. And midwifery, decency seems to allot to them . . . they might, also, study politics . . .

Thoughts on the Education of Daughters: With Reflections on Female Conduct, in the More Important Duties of Life, Mary Wollstonecraft, J. Johnson, 1787, digitized on August 2 nd, 2007, Google Ebook, http://books.google.com/books?id=hVIJAAAAQAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s. ) 9 Thoughts on the Education of Daughters: With Reflections on Female Conduct, in the More Important Duties of Life, Mary Wollstonecraft, J. Johnson, 1787, digitized on August 2 nd, 2007, Google Ebook, http://books.google.com/books?id=hVIJAAAAQAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s. ) 10 Elizabeth Robins Pennell, Mary Wollstonecraft, Project Gutenberg: 2009, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22800/22800-h/22800-h.htm. (accessed February 18, 2014). 11 A vindication of the rights of woman, Adriana Craciun, Routledge 2002. 12 A vindication of the rights of woman, Adriana Craciun, Routledge 2002.

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Business of various kinds, they might likewise pursue."13 By examining the difference, Mary hinted an idea of equality in gender for education which is the earliest ideal of gender equality. Beside education, gender equality was the other aspect that A Vindication of the Rights of Women depicted with the earliest development. Mary questioned gender quality indirectly from the education ideals for women. In her opinion, 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 endeavor by satire or instruction to improve them 14 Her argument depicted that even though men were still masculine and superior to the women subject, women should have a certain degree of freedom and in order to better fulfill their household duties as well as their life interests. Would men but generously snap our chains, and be content with rational fellowship instead of slavish obedience, they would find us more observant daughters, more affectionate sisters, more faithful wives, more reasonable mothers in a word, better citizens 15. The work of Mary Wollstonecraft was heavily affected by the Enlightenment movement, notably by Jean Jacques Rousseau and Catharine Macaulay. Mary Wollstonecraft and Catharine Macaulay shared some similar viewpoint regarding the needs for education. They shared the ideal of child education at a young age for their future development. Also, Catharine mentioned the hardship of raising a child due to their unstable mood. Both scholars also agreed upon the idea that education for children should also come as free-flowing and relaxing- let the child discover the world and make it come naturally so they would be excited to acquire the skill set. Besides, Catharine was also supportive of the movement towards women during the time. She considered the women education at the time to have an effect of corrupt and debilitate both the powers of mind and body towards women. Catharine inspired Mary heavily in the work of A Vindication of the Rights of Women. Another scholar that had a huge impact on Mary was Jean Jacques Rousseau. In his work The Social Contract, Jean Jacques Rousseau depicted individual will as a normal will of a human being. Moreover, Rousseau identified and laid the foundation on the different of individual right and individuals State power viewpoint. He stated that any individual could identify himself towards the monarchy without performing any loyalties toward it. He may also regard the moral person of the State as an imaginary being since it is not a man, and wish to enjoy the rights of a citizen without performing the duties of a

13 14

A vindication of the rights of woman, Adriana Craciun, Routledge 2002. A vindication of the rights of woman, Adriana Craciun, Routledge 2002. 15 A vindication of the rights of woman, Adriana Craciun, Routledge 2002.

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subject. This unjust attitude could cause the ruin of the body politic if it became widespread enough.16 Even though this idea was focusing on individual in general, Mary Wollstonecrafts freedom and equality of gender ideal have shown affection from this basic premise of human rights. He also thought that the dependency of the individual toward the fatherland caused the subject to be loyal with the monarchy. Based on Rousseaus relationship theory between a man and his homes subject- the monarchy, Mary Wollstonecraft developed her relationship theory of a man and a wife with similar premises in whic h a wife was dependent on his man. Also, the thesis of a mans freewill to choose his country base on his wealth and condition resembled the idea of womens education in which women could be beneficial in case of abandonment/ separation from the man. In brief, there are traits of Mary Wollstonecrafts women theory that can be traced back to Enlightenment thought of prominent scholars such as Jean Jacques Rousseau and Catharine Macaulay. In conclusion, Mary Wollstonecrafts works are heavily affected by her life events and her encounter with Enlightenment scholars. The rough childhood reflected on her theory of the importance of early education. Marys lifelong friends struggle with life and love inspired her theory and ideal on women education and equality. Also, those theories are heavily affected and developed from the Enlightenment scholars at the time. Despite the relating events and inspired figures, Mary Wollstonecraft was the earliest scholar to establish the foundation of women rights in history mankind which has a huge influence on the world as it is nowadays.

16

Modern History Sourcebook:Jean Jacques Rousseau:The Social Contract, 1763, http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/rousseau-soccon.asp.

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Works Consulted and Cited:

1. The Making of the West, Vol.II, Lynn Hunt, et al 2. Sources of the Western Tradition Brief Edition: Vol. II, Editor, Marvin Perry
3.

Elizabeth Robins Pennell, Mary Wollstonecraft, Project Gutenberg: 2009, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22800/22800-h/22800-h.htm. (accessed February 18, 2014) .

4.

Thoughts on the Education of Daughters: With Reflections on Female Conduct, in the More Important Duties of Life, Mary Wollstonecraft, J. Johnson, 1787, digitized on August 2 nd, 2007, Google Ebook, http://books.google.com/books?id=hVIJAAAAQAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s. )

5. 6.

A vindication of the rights of woman, Adriana Craciun, Routledge 2002.

Modern History Sourcebook:Jean Jacques Rousseau:The Social Contract, 1763, http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/rousseau-soccon.asp.

Quoc Nguyen