Mary Wollstonecraft

the call for a revolution of female manners

Kjersti Fjørtoft

pp. 257-273

in: Guttorm Fløistad (ed), Philosophy of justice, Berlin, Springer, 2015

Abstract

Mary Wollstonecraft is best known as the author of The Vindication of The Rights of Women. Many of the male authors of her contemporaries justified the suppression of women on the grounds that women are less rational and more impulsive and emotional than men. Wollstonecraft argues against those views, and claims that all human beings, regardless of sex, are born as rational beings, and therefore have equal capabilities for rational thinking and acting. Women become irrational and ignorant because they are denied proper education and basic political rights. Ultimately, the consequence of denying women attaining knowledge and the opportunity to work and to participate in the political life of the society, is obstruct their opportunity to fulfill their Good—given duty to develop as rational beings. She calls for a "Revolution on Female Manners". This requires a reconstruction of notions of female identity, as well as political and legal reforms. This paper is a discussion of Wollstonecrafts argument for gender equality with particular emphasis on her ideas of citizenship and education.

Cited authors

Wollstonecraft Mary