Title Page of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Title Page of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

This is the title page of Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, which was published in 1792. Wollstonecraft was a prolific English writer and powerful advocate for women’s rights, as the title of this book suggests. Chapter XII, titled “On National Education,” is the most pertinent section of this book to this exhibit. This document is incredibly useful for evaluating the state of education—in particular women’s education—at the end of the 18th century. In this chapter, Wollstonecraft identifies several vices resulting from purely public and purely private education as well as from educating members of either sex in isolation of the other. Her reasons for this are laid out in a powerful statement: “If marriage be the cement of society, mankind should all be educated after the same model, or the intercourse of the sexes will never deserve the name of fellowship, nor will women ever fulfill the peculiar duties of their sex, till they become enlightened citizens, till they become free by being enabled to earn their own subsistence, independent of men” (Wollstonecraft, "On National Education"). The language Wollstonecraft uses is clearly directed towards a male audience, as she speaks of women failing to fulfill the “duties of their sex.” These duties have been defined by men, and it would concern primarily men if women were not fulfilling their “wifely duties.” Wollstonecraft argues for women to be educated in the same manner as and together with men, evidence that this was surely not happening at this time. The entire chapter lays out well-structured defenses for equality between men and women in education, proving that such a thing did not exist, but that the idea of it was circulating.

Mary Wallstonecraft

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wollstonecraft-right-of-woman.jpg

1792

Benjamin Wightman