Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft
- Earliest feminist writer
- 1700s Enlightenment thinker prized human rationality/logic as a means for leading people to behave more ethically
o During the enlightenment, people who wrote were enlightenment thinkers: they thought that if you could offer someone a rational argument for why should do something, it would lead them to do the right or ethical thing.
- Kant, a contemporary, Categorical Imperative logic/rationality leads to ethical behavior, and yet, he was a fierce mysonganist – a person who believes women are inherently/naturally inferior to men (physically, spiritually, emotionally, etc.)  very irrational because form of prejudice.
- Ku Klux Klan  wouldn’t be able to change their minds…
- Mary thought she could change Kant’s mind...not happening
- Some mysonganist and enlightenment thinkers
- Rousseau  mysonganist worse than Kant
- David Hume  public atheist; he was never allowed to teach anywhere because he was an atheist.
- Kant was a theist and he and Hume disagreed about EVERYTHING except that women were inferior
- John Locke

The plight of women in the 1700s, particularly in Victorian England
• Morals were very, very strict.
• There were only 3 jobs available to women (no single life available to women)
1. Nanny  lives with rich family and schools children Mary Poppins)  This was a temporary job until marriage. They lived with their parents, then family, then husband  they were not allowed to live on their own; no one would rent to them
2. Schoolteacher seen as a temporary position; and could only teach boys up till about 2nd or 3rd grade, and they could teach girls at all ages.
3. Prostitute  only ‘career’ available; not allowed to be married or attend social events.. You could rent an apartment…this was the only exception. There was no prophylactic birth control so many STDs and births. (Ancient Greece and Rome had condoms) – They stuffed pebbles in their vagina to prevent deep penetration...ouch!
• No private property ownership or income for women. If you were a teacher/nanny, the father or husband would take wages. If a wife inherits $1 mill, the husband gets the money.
• No voting
• No laws to prosecute domestic violence/marital rape. Both were legal.
• Arranged marriages/ no dating/ dowry (bride price  If I’m a wealthy father, I will pay a man a large amount of money for a man to marry my daughter)

Mary Wollstonecraft’s life
- Oldest of 3 sisters
- Father was very wealthy, but developed a gambling problem and spent all of the dowry at the casino
- By the time Mary become marrying age, there is no dowry, so not an attractive prospect for a husband
- She becomes a nanny and teaches children; she disagrees with the mother of the family and stops being the nanny
- She then becomes a school teacher; she is very unhappy with the state of girls education and doesn’t believe they are being taught what they should/need to be taught.
- She starts her own school and she writes her own curriculum/textbooks for the school in hopes of creating a school that provided better education for girls.
- Nobody wants to send their kids to a school started by a woman so it quickly shuts down
- Now, she teaches herself German, Spanish, and French and she travels Europe alone
- She starts to write travel books which are very successful and become semi-famous like a celebrity based on the books
- She also translates foreign books into English for money for the publishers
- She is living on her own with an independent income – one of the only women to do this – she gets away with this because she is traveling
- She lives a “Bohemian” lifestyle  freethinker; not living in conformity/accordance with the morals of society
- Cohabitation – she lived with people while she wasn’t married to them – this was illegal and morally frowned upon  During this time, she had a child out of wedlock and they actually put the word ‘bastard’ on the birth certificate.
- She had several ménage trois relationships  A sexual relationship between 3 people  She would move in with a married couple who were also semi-famous – all this behavior caused tabloids to go crazy because of the scandals.

Mary Wollstonecraft’s Overarching Argument in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
P1: If women are education, that is, their natural reason is cultivated; then, they will make better wives, mothers and citizens
P2: If women are better wives, mothers, and citizens, then men will be better husbands, fathers and citizens
P3: If men and women are better citizens, then society as a whole will benefit
/Therefore, women should be educated, that is, their natural reason should be cultivated.

o This book was written to men for men to read, not to women.
o It was a rational appeal to change men’s minds  She is asking nicely.
o There is no demand, ever, by Mary. (There is no demand even for rights she deserves.)
o She never asks for legal equality  She never asks for the right to vote, own property, etc
o She appeals for a better education for women  Her entire argument is focused on getting a better education for women
o She defines education: to cultivate their natural reason; meaning, teach them to think for themselves  This will create independence and this will lead to legal equality (She sees it as a means (education) to an end (legal equality))
o Modern Feminists are very critical of Mary; they don’t like her at all even though she is pretty much the earliest feminist philosopher.
 They say that Mary should not appeal or ask nicely for rights. – They say she should demand them
• Dr. King made a moral appeal to white America and it was always peaceful…never a demand. Malcolm X said no…they are OUR rights, so he used violence.
 Reverse Psychology  The argument is saying that men will benefit first; feminists would say who cares if it benefits or makes men happy.



April 20, 2011
Minor Argument #1 – Childlike vs. Sex Object

Childlike:
Women were viewed as childlike and sex objects; Mary said these two views are contradictory…you cannot view something as a child and yet equating them with sexuality.
- Women viewed as naïve, gullible & easily led astray by an inability to control appetites & desires because of pure nature
- Solution: Keep a close eye on your daughter or wife, women must be looked after like children, protected from themselves
o This attitude was due to John Milton
- John Milton “Paradise Lost” book length poem about Satan’s fall from Heaven & Garden of Eden – 2 books used to teach children to read
o Paradise Lost (PL)
1. John portrays Eve as being very naïve, gullible and easily led astray because she ate the forbidden fruit…they realize that they are naked after they eat the fruit. God curses the 3 people involved in eating the fruit, Satan, Adam & Eve
o King James Bible (KJB)
- Eve (/ all women) responsible for sin in the world because she was childlike & led astray by Satan
- God’s Curse to 3 involved
1. Satan, crawl on your belly
2. Adam, eat by sweat of your brow (you will have to work)
3. Eve, pain in childbearing AND be submissive to your husband (husband will be master)

PG. 19  From PL
“To whom thus Eve w/ perfect beauty adorned
Eve is talking here  My author & disposer, what thou bidst?
Unargued, I obey, so God ordains  do whatever your husband says bc that is what God says
God is thy law, thou mine”

- Created hierarchy (that kids grow up believing)
o God
o Man
o Woman
o Kids
o Dog

Sex object:
- Prevailing image of women as promiscuous liars  Women want sex all the time, no self-control because of their own physical appetites; they are naturally good at lying.
- Solution: Keep your daughter and/or your wife under lock and key (SAME SOLN FOR CHILDLIKE)
- Rousseau: French philosopher and novelist & he was very popular (like Stephen Kind of Europe)
o Wrote a book called ‘Camile’  All of his books portrayed women as promiscuous liars
o These books were read by a mass audience who did not have tv, movies, or radio
o Young girls were raised hearing these books and thinking the image of women were promiscuous liars
o He is completely unapologetic towards women:
o PG 25  Rousseau “…a woman should never for a moment feel herself independent; she should be governed by fear to control her natural cunning (deceiving): She should be made a coquettish (flirty or a China doll made of thin porcelain only for display) slave (possession) in order to render her a more alluring object of desire, a sweeter companion to man, whenever he chooses to relax himself”

***Mary feels the two views of woman as childlike & sex objects are contradictory and they can’t both be true so therefore it’s irrational.  Remember, she is an Enlightenment thinker so rationality is the most important thing. ***



Minor Argument #2 – Women’s Education (PG 26)
- Rousseau  “But Rousseau…the whole point of female education is to render them pleasing” (It is not to teach them to think for themselves or to cultivate natural reason)
- Girls get a 4th grade education so they are taught basic arithmetic, grammar, history, but beyond the 4th grade, women are taught all throughout high school home economics, fashion, manners, etc.
- Mary also calls out Dr. Gregory; he wrote a textbook called “A Legacy to my Daughters”
o PG 27 – Dr. Gregory “The worthy Dr. Gregory…”
o She says he writes “cultivate a fondness for dress, because a fondness for dress is what comes natural to them” Basically, we are going to teach them to appreciate dress and jewelry because that is what come natural to them
o This is a “Natural Fallacy”  The idea that was usually
1. Stereotypes are claimed to be true not because of society, culture, education, or upbringing, but rather because it is natural.
o Mary points out that most of the time, human behavior (male/female) is the result of society, culture, education, or upbringing…NOT NATURE.
o For example - Women were never given the opportunity to learn science so men were better at it
- Social constraints
o Men claimed that girls were naturally more sickly than boys because more girls died than boys
1. Mary says that girls were not allowed to play outside because it was seen as un-lady like and boys got fresh air, sunshine, climb trees, exercise, etc.
2. Corset  It would push the diaphragm in and so they couldn’t take a full breath in so if they gasped due to bad news, they would fall over and faint  This was seen as a physical weakness

Birth Control is the #1 event in history that has empowered women. It gives the choice to the woman.

Minor Argument #3 – “Friendship or Indifference inevitably follows love”
- Mary says it is the course of Nature that the honeymoon be over (the honeymoon will end)
- When this happens, 1 of 2 things will happen: (remember she is writing this to men)
1. HAPPY  Your wife becomes your friend  Only if she is your peer (meaning equal) & she will only be your peer if she is educated otherwise she is childlike… OR
2. UNHAPPY  Your wife becomes like another kid in the house (just another mouth to feed and someone who is dependent on you)  She is childlike and you will resent her
- This is another appeal to men.
- She thinks that men want wives to be their friends…is this true?

How Mary died
• She settled down and finally married a philosopher
• Had a daughter - Marry Shelly (Frankenstein)
• They didn’t get all of the placenta after birth and became infected
• 2 weeks of excruciating pain after giving birth after infection
• Her husband the philosopher knew about her life and told all the sex stuff she did and it became an overnight bestseller in Europe
• Unfortunately, Kant, Rousseau, etc. – she became a cautionary tale and held the book up and said this is what happens when you give a woman an education.
• There was a backlash against feminism and set it back 100 yrs.