A Revolution in Female Manners- Mary Wollstonecrafts 'Vindication of the Rights of Woman'

Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,7, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, course: English Romantic Art and Literature, language: English, abstract: 'The fear of innovation, in this country, extends to every thing' mourns Mary Wollstonecraft in her Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792 (254). At this time, women were thought to be inferior to men and did not have any legal rights. As a well-educated and very intelligent woman, Wollstonecraft could hardly bare to see her fellow women trudge through life not even noticing that they were suppressed by an unjust system of slave-like subjugation. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman therefore aimed at changing public perception of women and showing ways to improve women's rights in society. In this paper I will try to point out the main arguments of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and the way they are built upon one another. In Wollstonecraft's work there is no real distinction between the different points as they are interwoven in cultural and social life as well. For the reader nowadays, however, I thought it to be more convenient to first understand what the situation for women in Wollstonecraft's time was like and how, always according to Wollstonecraft's own description, they were perceived in society. Her own perception of woman will round up the first chapter of this paper. The next point will deal with the relation between the sexes; mainly with the way women are suppressed by men and how this subjugation could be rendered more just. This leads to the main point of the argument, which is the emancipation of women. In this chapter I will concentrate on the reasons for female emancipation, the means of its achievement and the effects it would have on society. In the last chapter I will draw a conclusion which will bring the main arguments together, briefly deal with some of the consequences and compare Mary Wollstonecraft with other female writers of her time.