Day 6 DO NOW Wednesday, March 8:

International Womens Day!

Everyone: Shout out to Mary W!
Open your annotations on A Vindication of the Rights of Women and
respond in the margins:
What does the title mean?
How does this essay fit the criteria for a formal essay, as opposed
to an informal essay?

Early Finishers:
How do Wollstonecrafts arguments mirror The Wife of Baths from The
Canterbury Tales?
 Wife of Bath: First
Literary Feminist
By God, if women had but written stories
Like those the clergy keep in oratories,
More had been written of mans wickedness
Than all the sons of Adam could redress
(General Prologue, lines 1346-1349).
Is not my husband under Gods command
to leave his father and mother and take me?
(lines 680-681)
Mary Wollstonecraft:
Mother of Feminism
The books of instruction, written by men
of genius, have had the same tendency as
more frivolous productions; and
that[women] are treated as a kind of
subordinate beings, and not as part of the
human species (lines 26-28).
The instruction which women have
hitherto received has only tended, with the
constitution of civil society, to render them
insignificant objects of desire (Lines
76-78).
 Compassionate and loving God,
you created a beautiful world for us
to share:
Prayer to Live Give us the desire to live simply,
so that our lives show your
Simply generosity.
You made us responsible for the
http://jesuitinstitute.org/Pages/ earth:
Prayers.htm guide us so that those who come
after us may enjoy your creation.
Amen.
Day 6 Agenda
Objectives:
Students will evaluate Wollstonecrafts essay using a feminist lens and
socio-historical lens
Students will participate in a Socratic Seminar discussing Wollstonecrafts
argument

Agenda:
Do Now/Prayer (10 minutes)
Historical Context & Author in Focus: Mary Wollstonecraft and the Formal
Essay (10 minutes)
Socratic Seminar Discussion: A Vindication...(10-20 minutes)
If Time Permits: Post-Reading Creative Writing (10 minutes)
 1746-1798
The final third of the Restoration emphasized
revolutionary ideas of the Enlightenment. Writers
denounced the monarchy and institutions of slavery,
while advocating for radical, equal rights.
Historical Context: A Womans Role in Public Life
Women were interested in new ideas, science, and math, just as men were
But, they were excluded from public arenas and conversation
Women were not admitted to universities and discouraged from pursuing
careers
During the Restoration, some women held salons and invited intellectuals into
their homes
These dialogues challenged their pre-defined roles in society: domestic roles
as mothers and wives, who seek to please their husbands
These women risked facing serious social and financial backlash
Others began to write!
These measures directly challenged conventional gender roles
Author in Focus: Mary Wollstonecraft
Feminist writer and intellectual who was born on April
27, 1759, in London.
Brought up by an abusive father, she left home and
dedicated herself to a life of writing.
Decried marriage, advocated for rights of women,
children, even animals
Most famous formal essay: A Vindication of the Rights of
Woman (1792)
She abhors prevailing notions that women are helpless
adornments of a household.
Instead, she states that society breeds "gentle
domestic brutes and that a confined existence makes
women frustrated and transforms them into tyrants
over their children and servants.
Wollstonecraft likened women's situations
in her day to that of slavery:
Liberty is the mother of virtue, and if
women be, by their very constitution,
Is th
is
slaves, and not allowed to breathe the or fa an apt,
ir
com ,
sharp invigorating air of freedom, they paris
on?
must ever languish like exotics, and be
reckoned beautiful flaws in nature.
Argumentation
An argument is speech or writing that makes a major claim, or takes a position,
about an issue and supports it with reasons and evidence
Wollstonecrafts argument is presented as a formal, structured essay so as to
prove her own credibility and support her argument!
In your notes, identify the Rhetorical Situation in this essay
Speaker: Wollstonecraft
Audience: Middle to Upper Class Educated Men & Women of Restoration
Subject: Womens lack of liberty and subordination in society
Purpose: advocate for a change of policy about womens education in order
to provide women with greater opportunities.
Wollstonecraft uses persuasive techniques and rhetorical strategies, and
refutation of counter-arguments to support her claim.
Lets pinpoint these techniques in todays Socratic Seminar
 Socratic Seminar Topics
Group 1: Wollstonecraft view[s], with indignation, the mistaken
notions that enslave[her] sex (line 167). What are the specific
conventions, practices, and beliefs that limit the opportunities of
Restoration era women? Cite evidence!

Group 2: Which rhetorical techniques does she use to support

her argument of changing the paradigm of womens education?
(Think beyond the three basic appeals of logos, ethos, and
pathos.) Cite evidence!
Post-Reading Follow Up: Creative Writing
Although the essay might seem conservative by modern standards, its
views were considered radical in 18th-century Britain, where few
women publicly expressed discontent over their limited educational
opportunities.
Develop a written response to Mary Wollstonecrafts A Vindication of
the Rights of Woman.
Option 1: Imagine that you are her opposition in the Restoration
era. You may be from any sector of society and any gender.
Option 2: Pretend that you are Mary Wollstonecraft today. Write
an updated Vindication of the Rights of Women essay
commenting on todays situations
Exit Ticket:
What would Mary Wollstonecraft think of the
state of womens rights today?
Day 6 Homework
Test next class on Restoration:
50 questions, multiple choice!
Know each author, work title,
and historical context
Literary Forms
Three Literary Eras of
Restoration and Subjects
explored
Buy Frankenstein book!
ISBN-13: 978-0486282114
You got this!
ISBN-10: 0486282112