Name: Arunima Sethi

Roll number: 170409

Submitted to: Mr. Maisnam Arnapal

Question: Using the two essays by Cora Caplan and Supurna Dasgupta from your book, discuss A
Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, first published 1792, is an important work of Wollstonecraft
advocates the equality of both the sexes. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman stated that women
should only receive domestic education and she critiques this idea. While Wollstonecraft does call for
equality of both the sexes in areas such as morality, she does not explicitly states that men and women
are equal. Wollstonecraft was unwelcomed by many critics due to this and some other problems, some
of which are highlighted in this paper.

Wollstonecraft writes that there are three principles that helps us to argue about anything. They are
reason, virtue and passion and temptation to gain knowledge. She writes “Consequently the perfection
of our nature and capability of happiness, must be estimated by the degree of reason, virtue and
knowledge…” She says that the basic reasons for subjugation of women are prejudice against women,
lack of education, lack of will power etc. She fights for women’s right to education and attempts to
redefine the position of women in the society and Wollstonecraft also rejects the practice of seeing
women as the objects of society or properties to be traded in the institution of marriage. Through her
essay, Rights of Woman she also attacks on the ideology of the French philosopher Rousseau, who
argued that women should be denied education and only be allowed to take domestic education.
According to Supurna Dasgupta, Wollstonecraft is “quite vehemently opposed to Rousseau’s
understanding of the woman as possessing ‘experimental morality’, of woman being the observer and
man the reasoning agent. Wollstonecraft’s woman is moral, rational and is capable of genius”.
Wollstonecraft’s work is seen as a proto feminist text that celebrates the rationality of women. Her
work is a critique of Rosseau’s point that women are “weak” and “artificial”.

Mary Wollstonecraft in her essay tries to extend the idea of Enlightenment when she focusses on
reason and rationality and says “the most perfect education … is best calculated to strengthen the
body and form of the heart. Or, in other words, to enable the individual to attain such habits of virtue
as will render it independent. In fact, it is a farce to call any being virtuous whose virtues do not result
from the exercise of its own reason. This was Rousseau’s opinion respecting men; I extend it to
women” She also argues against the assumption that women are not rational creatures. Mary
Wollstonecraft attacks this thinking and proposes the same type of education for girls as that proposed
for boys. Adding to this, she also proposes the idea that both men and women should be taught
together, the idea ridiculed by many of her critics.

Mary Wollstonecraft’s whole work aims at the idea of equality between both men and women. Supurna
Dasgupta writes, “This utopia of equal social dignity for everyone has haunted Enlightenment”.
Supurna Dasgupta feels that Rights of Woman is far from just being a simplistic early feminist text.
While Wollstonecraft does call for equality of both the sexes in areas such as morality, she does not
explicitly states that men and women are equal. As Dasgupta rightly puts “though Wollstonecraft hopes
to establish equality among man and woman, she hopes to do so while still preserving the differences
between them.” She also tries to inculcate a masculine voice in her essay to try bridging the existing
gap between men and women.
In her essay, Wollstonecraft discusses the roles of wives as prescribed by the patriarchal society. For
Wollstonecraft, marriage is one that resembles friendship in its emphasis on freedom, reason, mutual
esteem, respect etc. One of the questions that stems from such a discussion is where sexuality can fit in.
According to Cora Kaplan, “A Vindication is eloquent but somewhat rambling prose.” She says that
Wollstonecraft attempted women to be equal to men and be independent but she also thinks that
“negative and prescriptive assault on sexuality that is the leitmotif” of her essay.
Cora Kaplan also critiques that Wollstonecraft “never proposes women in a ‘degraded’ condition, as
either vanguard or revolutionary mass.” Even Abbey also points out Wollstonecraft’s antipathy to the
notion that marriage was the only way for women to rise in life; this notion is problematic because of
the ways women are forcefully taught from childhood to render themselves appealing to the male sex.
While critiquing all the patriarchal stereotypes laid down for women, Mary Wollstonecraft counsels
against letting sex and passion take central role in any relationship wherein both the partners are equal
and not superior to one another.
Wollstonecraft drives our attention towards another important aspect of the text that is desire, love and
lust. Coming to the idea of love and lust why are women always degraded. She looked at desire
negatively and said that women are meant to be subservient to love and lust. She aimed not to disrespect
the idea of love as opposed by Rousseau who only want women’s education should only be to make
them pleasing. Cora Kaplan replies “was a sobering read … and heroic mission to rescue women from
a fate worse than death.” Cora Kaplan also feels that Wollstonecraft is ‘tampering’ and ‘degrading’
sexuality. Cora Kaplan calls all this a death; “a little death, the death of desire, the death of female
desire”.
With all the citations, and thorough reading it can be concluded that Mary Wollstonecraft’s A
Vindication of the Rights of Woman, is a proto-feminist text which has some problems of its own. Even
though Wollstonecraft says that she will try her utmost to bring equality between men and women, she
leaves certain issues undiscovered. Both Cora Kaplan and Supurna Dasgupta have penned down
extremely necessary criticisms of the prevalence of double politics in the text. However, it is of extreme
importance to consider that Wollstonecraft’s text came as a critique of Edmund Burke’s Reflections on
the French Revolution and has done wonders in the egalitarian attempt that Wollstonecraft tries to bring
between men and women even in the late eighteenth century. Conclusively, the essay is an excellent
attempt and trial to bring equality with certain ambiguity within it.

W O R K S C I T E D:

1. Dasgupta, Supurna. “Rational Delight: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in the Discourse
of Human Rights”. Delhi: Worldview Critical Editions. 2016.
2. Kaplan, Cora. “Wild Nights: Pleasure/Sexuality/Feminism The Rights of Woman and Feminine
Sexuality: Mary Wollstonecraft”. Delhi: Worldview Critical Editions. 2016.
3. Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Delhi: Worldview Critical
Editions. 2016.