Wollstonecraft’s initial response was to write A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790), a rebuttal of Burke that argued in favour of parliamentary reform, and stated that religious and civil liberties were part of a man’s birthright, with corruption caused in the main by ignorance. Burke saw the French Revolution as a movement which would inevitably fail, as society needed traditional structures such as inherited positions and property in order to strengthen it. Mary Wollstonecraft wrote this pioneering book in part as a reaction to Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the French Revolution, published in late 1790. 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. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman calls for the establishment of a national education system operating mixed-sex schools, not to train better wives, but because Wollstonecraft feels it is essential for women’s dignity that they be given the right and the ability to earn their own living and support themselves. My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating graces, and viewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone.īefore Wollstonecraft, there had been books that argued for the reform of female education, but often for moral reasons or to better prepare women for their role as companions for men. Wollstonecraft’s tone conveys both her own sense of humour but also her anger at the enfeebled situation that the majority of women were forced into.
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