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INTRODUCTION TO A Vindication of the Rights of Women
At
the heart of Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the
Rights of Women, are the twin virtues of freedom of
thought and devotion to family. Few people have so well
combined the two as Mary herself, the presiding
matriarch of one of the most remarkable families of
free-thinkers the West has ever seen.
A self-taught London teacher, Mary and her sister Eliza
became convinced that the girls they attempted to
enlighten were already enslaved by a social training
that subordinated them to men. In an age when
revolutionary fervour and a new belief in the idea of
inalienable rights for all men was beginning to cause
turmoil across the West, Mary, after a period as a
governess in Ireland, spent several years observing
political and social developments in France. She wrote
History and Moral View of the Origins and Progress of
the French Revolution and A Vindication of the Rights of
Men as a defense of the ideals of the Revolution against
the conservative objections of Burke. Returning to
England, she joined a radical group whose membership
included Blake, Paine, Fuseli, and Wordsworth. Her first
child, Fanny, was born in 1795, the daughter of the
American Gilbert Imlay. After his desertion, she began a
relationship with the academic philosopher William
Godwin, though their shared opposition to the
inequalities of marriage meant that they only wed before
the birth of their daughter, Mary (who was to
scandalously elope with Percy Bysshe Shelley, and to
write the novel Frankenstein.) Wollstonecraft died
within two weeks of the birth of "childbed fever" or
septicemia.
Mary Wollstonecraft may be the "mother of feminism",
yet, for all that she was called a "hyena in
petticoats", by today's standards she seems somewhat
prudish and more than modest in her aims. She does not
lay any claim to equal opportunity for women, but rather
allows for the sort of variation in the roles of the
sexes which her sucessors might now call 'difference
feminism'
ABOUT
THIS SQUASHED EDITION
This
condensed edition reduces the original 85,000 words by
nearly 90%, but, as Wollstonecraft is an unusually
repetitive writer, no great amount of her sense has been
lost. BIBLIOGRAPHY Although the Vindication is often
stated to be the first feminist text, the anonymous
Womans Worth, recently discovered at Leigh, England,
predates Wollstonecraft by some 150 years.The
Vindications is, to a great extent, a response to the
many 'Conduct Manuals' circulating at the time. Ones
referred to include: Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Emilius; Or,
An Essay On Education. (1763) Dr. James Fordyce: Sermons
To Young Women (1766) Dr. John Gregory: A Father's
Legacy To His Daughters (1774) Baroness De Stael:
Corinne (1807) Mrs. Piozzi: Letters To And From The Late
Samuel Johnson LL.D. (1788) Madame De Genlis: Adelaide
And Theodore (1783) Hester Chapone: Letters On The
Improvement Of The Mind (1773) Catherine Macaulay:
Letters On Education (1790)
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THE
VERY
SQUASHED VERSION OF...
Mary Wollstonecraft, 1792
A Vindication of the Rights of Women
"I do not wish them to have power over
men; but over themselves."
I have a profound conviction that women are
rendered weak and wretched, especially by a
false system of education, gathered from
books written by men who have been more
anxious to make of women alluring mistresses
than rational wives. The DIVINE RIGHT of
husbands, like the divine right of kings,
may, it is to be hoped, in this enlightened
age, be contested without danger. Men, in
their youth, are prepared for professions,
but women can only look to marriage to
sharpen their faculties. Yet, novels, music,
poetry and gallantry all tend to make women
creatures of sensation. "Educate women like
men," says Rousseau, "and the less power
will they have over us." This is my point. I
do not wish them to have power over men; but
over themselves. Rousseau holds that women
ought to be weak and passive. Dr. Fordyce
and Dr. Gregory's advice to women are full
of old prejudices. Modesty is a great
virtue, O my sisters, but modesty is
incompatible with ignorance and vanity!
Though I consider that women in the common
walks of life are called to be wives and
mothers, I lament that women of a superior
cast have no way to pursue usefulness and
independence. I really think that women
ought to have representatives, instead of
being arbitrarily governed without any share
in the deliberations of government. Taxes on
the very necessaries of life support an
endless tribe of idle princes. Women might
study medicine, politics and business. Women
would not then marry for a support. Parental
affection is often but a pretext to
tyrannize. Children cannot be taught too
early to submit to reason; but it is
unreasoned parental authority that first
injures the mind. I think that schools are
now hot-beds of vice and folly. Day schools
should be established by government, in
which boys and girls might be educated
together. Humanity to animals should be
particularly inculcated. Belief in
horoscopes is one of the worst affectations
of women. Stupid, sentimental novels are
another, as is an immoderate savage-like
fondness for dress, for pleasure and sway.
The majority of mothers leave their children
entirely to the care of servants: or treat
them as if they were demi-gods, yet such
women seldom show common humanity to
servants. Let woman share the rights, and
she will emulate the virtues of man.
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A
Vindication of the Rights of Women
Mary Wollstonecraft
1792
Squashed version edited by
Glyn
Hughes
© 2008
TO: M. TALLEYRAND PERIGORD, LATE BISHOP OF AUTUN.
Sir:-
Having read your pamphlet on National Education, I
dedicate this volume to you, thinking that you will
understand me, unlike many pert witlings, even
though you did not view the subject in the same
light as me. And, pardon my frankness, but I must
observe, that you treated it in too cursory a
manner.
I plead for my sex, not for myself, in calling upon
you now to weigh what I have advanced respecting the
rights of woman and national education. If the
abstract rights of man will bear discussion and
explanation, those of woman, cannot shrink from the
same test.
I wish, sir, to set some investigations of this kind
in France; so that, when its constitution is
revised, the rights of woman may be respected, and
reason will support the loud demands for JUSTICE for
one half of the human race.
I am, sir,
Yours respectfully,
M.W.
INTRODUCTION.
After considering the historic page, I have gained a
profound conviction that women, in particular, are
rendered weak and wretched by a variety of causes. This
barren blooming I attribute especially to a false system
of education, gathered from books written by men who
have been more anxious to make of women alluring
mistresses than rational wives.
I wish to steer clear of the error of addressing only
LADIES, but to pay particular attention to those in the
middle class. I wish to persuade women to endeavour to
acquire strength of mind and body, and to convince them
that delicacy of sentiment and refinement of taste are
almost synonymous with weakness, pity and contempt.
I presume that RATIONAL men will excuse me for
endeavouring to persuade women to become more masculine
and respectable, though there is little reason to fear
that women will acquire too much courage or fortitude.
It seems scarcely necessary to say that many individuals
have more sense than their male relatives; and that some
women govern their husbands without degrading
themselves, because intellect will always govern.
CHAPTER 1
THE RIGHTS AND INVOLVED DUTIES OF MANKIND CONSIDERED.
In the present state of society, it appears
necessary to go back to first principles in search of
the most simple truths. Thus, in what does man's
pre-eminence over the brute creation consist? The answer
is as clear as that a half is less than the whole; in
Reason. What acquirement exalts one being above another?
Virtue. For what purpose were the passions implanted?
That man by struggling with them might attain knowledge
denied to the brutes: whispers Experience.
Consequently, that the society is wisest whose
constitution is founded on the nature of man, seems
self-evident. Yet the desire of dazzling by riches, of
commanding flattering sycophants, and doting self-love,
have all contributed to overwhelm the mass of mankind,
and make liberty a convenient handle for mock
patriotism. Will men never be wise? will they never
cease to expect corn from tares, and figs from thistles?
No man can acquire the strength of mind to discharge the
duties of a king, where all feeling is stifled by
flattery and power intoxicates weak men; but this simple
piece of reason raises an outcry that its promoters are
enemies of God and of man. After attacking the sacred
majesty of kings, I shall scarcely excite surprise in
declaring that every profession where rank and
subordination constitutes power, is highly injurious to
morality. A standing army, for instance, is incompatible
with freedom, because subordination and despotism are
the very sinews of military discipline. Besides, nothing
is so prejudicial to the morality of garrison towns as
those young idlers who conceal their deformity under gay
ornamental drapery. Sailors come under the same
description, only their vices assume a different and
grosser cast. The clergy may have superior opportunities
of improvement, but their colleges impose a blind
submission, while obsequious respect is their only means
to rise in their profession.
A man of sense may have some individuality, but the
weak, common, man has his opinions so steeped in the vat
of consecrated authority, that the faint spirit which
the grape of his own vine yields cannot be
distinguished. It is this pestiferous purple which
renders the progress of civilization a curse, and warps
the understanding.
CHAPTER 2
THE PREVAILING OPINION OF A SEXUAL CHARACTER DISCUSSED.
To account for, and excuse the tyranny of man, it
has been argued that the two sexes, in acquiring virtue,
ought to aim at very different characters: or, to speak
explicitly, women are not allowed to have sufficient
strength of mind to acquire REAL virtue.
Women are told from their infancy, by the example of
their mothers, that a little knowledge of human
weakness, justly termed cunning, softness of temper, and
OUTWARD obedience, will obtain for them the protection
of man; and should they be beautiful, every thing else
is needless, for at least twenty years of their lives.
Thus Milton tells us that women are formed for softness
and sweet attractive grace; I cannot comprehend his
meaning, unless, in the true Mahometan strain, he meant
to deprive us of souls. Children, I grant, should be
innocent; but when the epithet is applied to men, or
women, it is but a civil term for weakness.
However, let us trace how we might endeavour to make
them co-operate, if the expression be not too bold, with
the Supreme Being. Let us begin with individual
education. The most perfect education, in my opinion, is
such an exercise of the understanding as is best
calculated to strengthen the body and form the heart; in
other words, to enable the individual to attain such
habits of virtue as will render it independent and to
exercise its own reason. This was Rousseau's opinion
respecting men: I extend it to women,
As a proof that education gives this appearance of
weakness to females, we may instance the example of
military men, who are, like them, sent into the world
before their minds have been stored with knowledge or
fortified by principles. Standing armies may be well
disciplined machines, but they will seldom contain men
of strong passions or vigorous faculties. Officers are
fond of dancing, crowded rooms, adventures, and
ridicule. Like the FAIR sex, they were taught to please,
and they only live to please. Yet they are still
reckoned superior to women, though in what their
superiority consists, it is difficult to discover.
Probably the prevailing opinion, that woman was created
for man, may have risen from Moses's poetical story; yet
very few will seriously have supposed that Eve was,
literally speaking, one of Adam's ribs, rather, the
story proves that man, from the remotest antiquity,
found it convenient to exert his strength to subjugate
his companion.
The woman who has only been taught to please, will soon
find that her charms are oblique sun-beams, and that
they cannot have much effect on her husband's heart when
they are seen every day, when the summer is past and
gone. Will she then have sufficient native energy to
look into herself for comfort, and cultivate her dormant
faculties? or, is it not more rational to expect that
she will try to please other men; and, in the emotions
raised by the expectation of new conquests, endeavour to
forget the mortification her love or pride has received?
When the husband ceases to be a lover- and the time will
inevitably come, her desire of pleasing will grow
languid, or become a spring of bitterness; and love
gives place to jealousy or vanity.
Nature has given woman a weaker frame than man; but, the
woman who strengthens her body and exercises her mind
will, by managing her family and practising virtues,
become the friend, and not the humble dependent of her
husband. Though moralists have agreed, that the tenor of
life seems to prove that MAN is prepared by various
circumstances for a future state, they constantly concur
in advising WOMAN only to provide for the present.
Gentleness, docility, and a spaniel-like affection are,
on this ground, consistently recommended as the cardinal
virtues. She was created to be the toy of man, his
rattle, and it must jingle in his ears, whenever,
dismissing reason, he chooses to be amused.
But to view the subject in another point of view. Do
passive indolent women make the best wives? So far from
it, that, after surveying the history of woman, I cannot
help agreeing with the severest satirist, considering
the sex as the weakest as well as the most oppressed
half of the species. If they are really capable of
acting like rational creatures, let them not be treated
like slaves; let them attain conscious dignity by
feeling themselves only dependent on God. I love man as
my fellow; but his sceptre real or usurped, extends not
to me.
As to the argument respecting the subjection in which
the sex has ever been held, it retorts on man. The many
have always been enthralled by the few. Is it not
universally acknowledged that kings, viewed
collectively, have ever been inferior, in abilities and
virtue, to the same number of men taken from the common
mass of mankind? Brutal force has hitherto governed the
world, and the science of politics is in its infancy. I
shall not pursue this argument any further than to
establish an obvious inference, that as sound politics
diffuse liberty, mankind, including woman, will become
more wise and virtuous.
CHAPTER 3
THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.
Bodily strength, from being the distinction of
heroes, is now sunk into such unmerited contempt, that
men as well as women, seem to think it unnecessary.
Equally, superficial observers have inferred that men of
genius have commonly delicate constitutions. Yet I find
that strength of mind has, in most cases, been
accompanied by superior strength of body and natural
soundness of constitution.
I will allow that bodily strength seems to give man a
natural superiority over woman; and this is the only
solid basis on which the superiority of the sex can be
built. But women’s limbs and faculties are cramped with
worse than Chinese bands, and the sedentary life which
they are condemned to live, whilst boys frolic in the
open air, weakens the muscles and relaxes the nerves.
Girls and boys, in short, would play harmless together,
if the distinction of sex was not inculcated long before
nature makes any difference.
I once knew a weak woman of fashion neglect all the
duties of life, yet recline with self-complacency on a
sofa, and boast of her want of appetite as a proof her
exquisite sensibility. Such a woman is not a more
irrational monster than some of the Roman emperors,
depraved by lawless power. Taught from their infancy
that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself
to the body, and, roaming round its gilt cage, only
seeks to adorn its prison.
Let not men in the pride of power, use the same
arguments that tyrannic kings and venal ministers have
used, and fallaciously assert, that woman ought to be
subjected because she has always been so. Women, deluded
by this sentiment, sometimes boast of their weakness,
cunningly obtaining power by playing on the WEAKNESS of
men; and they may well glory in their illicit sway. But
should it be proved that woman is naturally weaker than
man, from whence does it follow that it is natural for
her to labour to become still weaker than nature
intended? Arguments of this cast are an insult to common
sense, and savour of passion. The DIVINE RIGHT of
husbands, like the divine right of kings, may, it is to
be hoped, in this enlightened age, be contested without
danger.
Throughout the whole animal kingdom every young creature
requires almost continual exercise. But, to preserve
personal beauty, woman's glory! the limbs and faculties
are cramped against nature. It is time to effect a
revolution in female manners, time to restore to them
their lost dignity, and make them, as a part of the
human species, labour by reforming themselves to reform
the world. It is time to separate unchangeable morals
from local manners.
In the superior ranks of life how seldom do we meet with
a man of superior abilities? The reason appears to me
clear; the state they are born in was an unnatural one.
The argument may fairly be extended to women; for both
wealth and female softness equally tend to debase
mankind.
CHAPTER 4
OBSERVATIONS ON THE STATE OF DEGRADATION TO WHICH WOMAN
IS REDUCED BY VARIOUS CAUSES.
That woman is degraded is, I think, clear. The power
of generalizing ideas, of drawing comprehensive
conclusions from individual observations, is the only
acquirement for an immortal being that deserves the name
of knowledge. Without it, where is the store laid up to
clothe the soul when it leaves the body? This power has
not only been denied to women; but writers have insisted
that it is inconsistent with their sexual character.
The grand source of female folly and vice has ever
appeared to me to arise from narrowness of mind.
Pleasure is the business of a woman's life, according to
the present modification of society, and while it
continues to be so, little can be expected from such
weak beings. Exalted by their inferiority (this sounds
like a contradiction) they constantly demand homage as
women.
Ah! why do women, I write with affectionate solicitude,
condescend to receive a degree of attention and respect
from strangers? Confined in cages, like the feathered
race, they have nothing to do but to plume themselves,
and stalk with mock-majesty from perch to perch. The
passions of men have thus placed women on thrones; and,
till mankind become more reasonable, it is to be feared
that women will avail themselves of the power which they
attain with the least exertion.
Lewis the XIVth spread factitious manners and flattered
women by a puerile attention to the whole sex. A king is
always a king, and a woman always a woman: his authority
and her sex, ever stand between them and rational
converse. With a lover, I grant she should be so, and
her sensibility will naturally lead her to endeavour to
excite emotion, not to gratify her vanity but her heart.
This I do not allow to be coquetry, it is the artless
impulse of nature, I only exclaim against the sexual
desire of conquest, when the heart is out of the
question.
This desire is not confined to women; "I have
endeavoured," says Lord Chesterfield, "to gain the
hearts of twenty women, whose persons I would not have
given a fig for." The libertine who in a gust of
passion, takes advantage of unsuspecting tenderness, is
a saint when compared with this cold-hearted rascal.
I lament that women are systematically degraded by
receiving trivial attentions. I scarcely am able to
govern my muscles, when I see a man start with eager
solicitude to lift a handkerchief, or shut a door, when
the LADY could have done it herself, had she only moved
a pace or two.
Men, in their youth, are prepared for professions, and
marriage is not considered as the grand feature in their
lives; whilst women, on the contrary, have no other
scheme to sharpen their faculties. To rise in the world,
and have the liberty of running from pleasure to
pleasure, they must marry advantageously, and to this
object their time is sacrificed, and their persons often
legally prostituted.
Yet, novels, music, poetry and gallantry, all tend to
make women the creatures of sensation. It would be an
endless task to trace the variety of meannesses, cares,
and sorrows, into which women are plunged by the
prevailing opinion.
I am fully persuaded, that we should hear of none of
these infantine airs, if girls were allowed to take
sufficient exercise and not confined in close rooms till
their muscles are relaxed and their powers of digestion
destroyed. "Educate women like men," says Rousseau, "and
the more they resemble our sex the less power will they
have over us." This is the very point I aim at. I do not
wish them to have power over men; but over themselves.
In the same strain have I heard men argue against
instructing the poor. "Teach them to read and write,"
say they, "and you take them out of the station assigned
them by nature." Ignorance is a frail base for virtue!
In the regulation of a family, in the education of
children, understanding is particularly required:
strength both of body and mind. Now, from all the
observation that I have been able to make, women of
sensibility are the most unfit for this task, because
they will infallibly, carried away by their feelings,
spoil a child's temper. The management of the temper,
the first and most important branch of education,
requires the sober steady eye of reason; a plan of
conduct equally distant from tyranny and indulgence; yet
these are the extremes that people of sensibility
alternately fall into; always shooting beyond the mark.
Polygamy is another physical degradation; and a
plausible argument for the custom is drawn from the
well-attested fact, that in the countries where it is
established, more females are born than males. Forster,
after observing that of the two sexes amongst animals,
the most vigorous and hottest constitution always
prevails, and produces its kind; he adds,- "If this be
applied to the inhabitants of Africa, it is evident that
the men there, accustomed to polygamy, are enervated by
the use of so many women, and therefore less vigorous;
the women on the contrary, are of a hotter
constitution... and thus the generality of children are
born females."
The necessity of polygamy, therefore, does not appear;
yet when a man seduces a woman, it should I think, be
termed a LEFT-HANDED marriage, and the man should be
LEGALLY obliged to maintain the woman and her children.
The woman who is faithful to the father of her children
demands respect, and should not be treated like a
prostitute; though I readily grant, that if it be
necessary for a man and woman to live together in order
to bring up their offspring, nature never intended that
a man should have more than one wife.
A woman who has lost her honour, imagines that she
cannot fall lower, and as for recovering her former
station, it is impossible; prostitution becomes her only
refuge. This, however, arises, in a great degree, from
the state of idleness in which women are educated,
always taught to look up to man for a maintenance, and
to consider their persons as the proper return for his
exertions to support them.
In tracing the causes that in my opinion, have degraded
woman, I not laid any great stress upon the example of a
few women (Sappho, Eloisa, Mrs. Macaulay, the Empress of
Russia, Madame d'Eon, etc). These, and many more, may be
reckoned exceptions; and, are not all heroes, as well as
heroines, exceptions to general rules? I wish to see
women neither heroines nor brutes; but reasonable
creatures.
CHAPTER 5.
ANIMADVERSIONS ON SOME OF THE WRITERS WHO HAVE RENDERED
WOMEN OBJECTS OF PITY, BORDERING ON CONTEMPT.
SECTION 5.1.
I shall begin with Rousseau's 'Emilius'; Sophia,
says Rousseau, should be as perfect a woman as Emilius
is a man, and to render her so, it is necessary to
examine the character which nature has given to the sex.
He then proceeds to prove that women ought to be weak
and passive, because she has less bodily strength than
man; and from hence infers, that she was formed to
please and to be subject to him- this being the grand
end of her existence.
All Rousseau's errors in reasoning arose from
sensibility, and sensibility to their charms women are
very ready to forgive! When he should have reasoned he
became impassioned, and reflection inflamed his
imagination, instead of enlightening his understanding.
Why was Rousseau's life divided between ecstasy and
misery? Can any other answer be given than this, that
the effervescence of his imagination produced both; but,
had his fancy been allowed to cool, it is possible that
he might have acquired more strength of mind.
SECTION 5.2.
Dr. Fordyce's 'Sermons' have long made a part of a
young woman's library; but I should instantly dismiss
them from my pupil's.
Is not the following portrait- the portrait of a house
slave? "I am astonished at the folly of many women, who
are still reproaching their husbands for leaving them
alone, when they have themselves in a great measure to
blame. Had you behaved to them with more RESPECTFUL
OBSERVANCE, and a more EQUAL TENDERNESS; STUDYING THEIR
HUMOURS, OVERLOOKING THEIR MISTAKES, SUBMITTING TO THEIR
OPINIONS, giving SOFT answers to hasty words,
complaining as seldom as possible, and making it your
daily care to relieve their anxieties, I doubt not but
you would have maintained and even increased their
esteem."
Dr. Fordyce must have very little acquaintance with the
human heart, if he really supposed that such conduct
would bring back wandering love, instead of exciting
contempt.
SECTION 5.3.
Such paternal solicitude pervades Dr. Gregory's
'Legacy to his Daughters', that I enter on the task of
criticism with affectionate respect.
Why, for instance, should the following caution be
given; "If you happen to have any learning keep it a
profound secret, especially from the men, who generally
look with a jealous and malignant eye on a woman of
great parts, and a cultivated understanding." If men of
real merit, as he afterwards observes, are superior to
this meanness, where is the necessity that the behaviour
of the whole sex should be modulated to please fools?
SECTION 5.4.
I do not mean to allude to all the writers who have
written on the subject of female manners- it would in
fact be only beating over the old ground, for they have,
in general, written in the same strain. Mrs. Piozzi
often repeated by rote what she did not understand. The
Baroness de Stael speaks the same language, yet with
more enthusiasm. Madame Genlis' letters on Education
afford many useful hints; but her views are narrow.
Of Mrs. Chapone's Letters, I cannot always coincide in
opinion with her; but I always respect her. The very
word respect brings Mrs. Macaulay to my remembrance. The
woman of the greatest abilities, undoubtedly, that this
country has ever produced. And yet this woman has been
suffered to die without sufficient respect being paid to
her memory.
CHAPTER 6.
THE EFFECT WHICH AN EARLY ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS HAS UPON
THE CHARACTER.
The association of our ideas is either habitual or
instantaneous; and the latter mode seems rather to
depend on the original temperature of the mind than on
the will. When ideas, and matters of fact, are once
taken in, they lie by for use, till some fortuitous
circumstance makes the information dart into the mind
like the lightning's flash. Over those instantaneous
associations we have little power. The understanding, it
is true, may transcribe from the imagination the warm
sketches of fancy; but the animal spirits give the
colouring.
Education supplies the man of genius with knowledge to
give variety and contrast to his associations; but the
habitual slavery to first impressions has a more baneful
effect on the female character. For instance, the
severest sarcasms have been levelled against the sex,
and they have been ridiculed for repeating "a set of
phrases learnt by rote," when nothing could be more
natural, considering the education they receive. If they
are not allowed to have reason sufficient to govern
their own conduct, we may admit Pope's summary "that
every woman is at heart a rake".
Women should not be satirized for their attachment to
rakes; nor even for being rakes at heart, when it
appears to be the inevitable consequence of their
education. Such men will inspire passion. Half the sex,
in its present infantine state, would pine for a
Lovelace; they want a lover and protector: and behold
him kneeling before them- bravery prostrate to beauty!
The virtues of a husband are thus thrown into the
background, and the sprightly lover turned into a surly
suspicious tyrant, who contemptuously insults the very
weakness he fostered.
CHAPTER 7.
MODESTY COMPREHENSIVELY CONSIDERED AND NOT AS A SEXUAL
VIRTUE.
Modesty! Sacred offspring of sensibility and reason!
may I unblamed presume to investigate thy nature!
It appears to me proper to discriminate that purity of
mind, which is the effect of chastity, and modesty, that
soberness of mind which teaches a man not to think more
highly of himself than he ought, properly distinguished
from humility. General Washington was modest; had he
been humble, he would probably have shrunk from his
enterprise.
The shameless behaviour of the prostitutes who infest
the streets of London, raising alternate emotions of
pity and disgust, tramples on virgin bashfulness with a
sort of bravado, and they become more audaciously lewd
than men. But these poor ignorant wretches never had any
modesty to lose, they were only bashful, shame-faced
innocents. Purity of mind, genuine delicacy, only
resides in cultivated minds.
As a sex, women are more chaste than men, and must
heartily disclaim that debauchery of mind which leads a
man to bring forward indecent allusions, or obscene
witticisms. How much more modest is the libertine who
obeys the call of appetite, than the lewd joker who sets
the table in a roar. Again; when men boast of their
triumphs over women, what do they boast of?
To take another view of the subject; in nurseries,
boarding schools and convents, I fear, girls are first
spoiled. A number of them sleep in the same room, and
wash together, acquiring immodest habits; and as many
girls have learned very indelicate tricks from ignorant
servants, the mixing of them indiscriminately is very
improper. I cannot recollect without indignation the
jokes and tricks which knots of young women indulge
themselves in, they were almost on a par with the double
meanings which shake the convivial table when the glass
has circulated freely.
Personal reserve is ever the hand-maid of modesty. So
that were I to name the graces that ought to adorn
beauty, I should exclaim, cleanliness, neatness, and
personal reserve. It is obvious that the reserve I mean
has nothing sexual in it, I think it EQUALLY necessary
in both sexes.
If men and women took half as much pains to dress
habitually neat, rather than to ornament and disfigure
their persons, much would be done towards the attainment
of purity of mind. But women only dress to gratify men;
yet the lover is always best pleased with the simple
garb that sits close to the shape.
A Christian has still nobler motives to incite her to
preserve her chastity and acquire modesty, for her body
has been called the Temple of the living God, whose eye
searcheth the heart. Would ye, O my sisters, really
possess modesty, ye must remember that the possession of
any virtue is incompatible with ignorance and vanity!
CHAPTER 8.
MORALITY UNDERMINED BY SEXUAL NOTIONS OF THE IMPORTANCE
OF A GOOD REPUTATION.
It has long since occurred to me, that advice
respecting behaviour, and all the various modes of
preserving a good reputation, which have been so
strenuously inculcated on the female world, were
specious poisons, that incrusting morality eat away the
substance.
I recollect a woman of quality, notorious for her
gallantries, though as she still lived with her husband,
who made a point of treating with the most insulting
contempt a poor timid creature, whom a neighbouring
gentleman had seduced and afterwards married. This woman
had actually confounded virtue with reputation; and, I
do believe, valued herself on the propriety of her
behaviour before marriage, though when once settled, to
the satisfaction of her family, she and her lord were
equally faithless- so that the half alive heir to an
immense estate came from heaven knows where!
Men are certainly more under the influence of their
appetites than women; and their appetites are more
depraved by unbridled indulgence. I will venture to
assert, that all the causes of female weakness, as well
as depravity, branch out of one grand cause- want of
chastity in men. To satisfy this genius of men, women
are made systematically voluptuous, and, though they may
not all carry their libertinism to the same height,
women, of all classes, naturally square their behaviour
to obtain pleasure and power.
Contrasting the humanity of the present age with the
barbarism of antiquity, great stress has been laid on
the savage custom of exposing the children whom their
parents could not maintain; whilst the man of
sensibility, who thus, perhaps, complains, by his
promiscuous amours produces a most destructive
barrenness and contagious flagitiousness of manners.
Surely nature never intended that women, by satisfying
an appetite, should frustrate the very purpose for which
it was implanted?
That the two sexes mutually corrupt and improve each
other, I believe to be an indisputable truth, extending
to every virtue. Public spirit must be nurtured by
private virtue, or it will resemble the factitious
sentiment which makes women careful to preserve their
reputation, and men their honour. A sentiment that often
exists unsupported by virtue, unsupported by that
sublime morality which makes the habitual breach of one
duty a breach of the whole moral law.
CHAPTER 9.
OF THE PERNICIOUS EFFECTS WHICH ARISE FROM THE UNNATURAL
DISTINCTIONS ESTABLISHED IN SOCIETY.
From the respect paid to property flow, as from a
poisoned fountain, most of the evils and vices which
render this world such a dreary scene to the
contemplative mind. One class presses on another, men
neglect their duties, yet are treated like demi-gods,
and religion is separated from morality by a ceremonial
veil. There is a homely proverb, that whoever the devil
finds idle he will employ. And what but idleness can
hereditary wealth produce?
Women are more debased and cramped by this than men,
because men may unfold their faculties as soldiers and
statesmen. Soldiers, I grant, can now only gather, for
the most part, vainglorious laurels; the days of true
heroism are over, when a citizen fought for his country
like a Fabricius or a Washington, and then returned to
his farm.
The statesman might with more propriety quit his
card-table to guide the helm, yet he has still to
shuffle and trick. The whole system of British politics,
if system it may courteously be called, consists in
multiplying dependants and contriving taxes which grind
the poor to pamper the rich; thus a war, or any wild
goose chase is a lucky turn-up of patronage for the
minister, whose chief merit is the art of keeping
himself in place. The preposterous distinctions of rank
corrupt, almost equally, every class of people. Still
there are some loop-holes out of which a man may creep,
and dare to think and act for himself; but for a woman
it is an herculean task.
Though I consider that women in the common walks of life
are called to fulfil the duties of wives and mothers, by
religion and reason, I cannot help lamenting that women
of a superior cast have not a road by which they can
pursue usefulness and independence. I may excite
laughter, by dropping an hint that I really think that
women ought to have representatives, instead of being
arbitrarily governed without having any share in the
deliberations of government.
But, as the whole system of representation is now, in
this country, only a convenient handle for despotism,
they need not complain, for they are no better
represented then the class of hard working mechanics who
pay for royality when they can scarcely stop their
children's mouths with bread. Taxes on the very
necessaries of life enable an endless tribe of idle
princes and princesses to pass with stupid pomp before a
gaping crowd. This is mere gothic grandeur, something
like the barbarous, useless parade of having sentinels
on horseback at Whitehall, which I could never view
without a mixture of contempt and indignation.
Rather than all wanting to be ladies, which is simply to
have nothing to do, women might certainly study the art
of healing, and be physicians as well as nurses and
midwives. They might, also study politics and business.
Women would not then marry for a support; nor would a
laudable attempt to earn their own subsistence sink them
almost to the level of those poor abandoned creatures
who live by prostitution.
How many women thus waste life away, who might have
supported themselves by their own industry? 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.
CHAPTER 10.
PARENTAL AFFECTION.
Parental affection is, perhaps, the blindest
modification of perverse self-love; to many, it is but a
pretext to tyrannize where it can be done with impunity.
As the care of children in their infancy is one of the
grand duties annexed to the female character by nature,
this duty affords many forcible arguments for
strengthening the female understanding. Meek wives are,
in general, foolish mothers; wanting their children to
love them best, and take their part, in secret, against
the father, who is held up as a scarecrow, who must
inflict the punishment and be the judge in all disputes.
CHAPTER 11.
DUTY TO PARENTS.
There seems to be an indolent propensity in man to
make prescription always take place of reason. The
rights of kings are deduced in a direct line from the
King of kings; and that of parents from our first
parent.
If parents discharge their duty they have a strong hold
and sacred claim on the gratitude of their children; but
few parents are willing to receive respectful affection
on such terms. Rather, they demand blind obedience
Children cannot be taught too early to submit to reason;
for to submit to reason, is to submit to the nature of
things, and to that God who formed them. It is
unreasoned exercise of parental authority that first
injures the mind, as when they see mamma's anger burst
out- either her hair was ill-dressed, or she had lost
more money at cards than she was willing to own to her
husband. Children cannot, ought not, to be taught to
make allowance for the faults of their parents, because
every such allowance weakens the force of reason in
their minds.
But, till society is better constituted, parents, I
fear, will still insist on being obeyed, because they
will be obeyed, and constantly endeavour to settle that
power on a Divine right, which will not bear the
investigation of reason.
CHAPTER 12.
ON NATIONAL EDUCATION.
I think that schools, as they are now regulated, the
hot-beds of vice and folly, and the knowledge of human
nature, supposed to be attained there, merely cunning
selfishness. I should be averse to boarding-schools, if
it were for no other reason than the unsettled state of
mind which the expectation of the vacations produce.
But, when they are brought up at home, boys acquire too
high an opinion of their own importance, from being
allowed to tyrannize over servants. Thus treated like
men when they are still boys, they become vain and
effeminate.
The only way to avoid two extremes would be to contrive
some way of combining a public and private education.
Many a distinguished man will recollect, with pleasure,
the country day school; where a boy trudged in the
morning, wet or dry, to return alone in the evening and
recount the feats of the day close at the parental knee.
But, what boy ever recollected with pleasure the years
he spent confined at an academy? Besides, in great
schools what can be more prejudicial to the moral
character, than the system of tyranny and abject slavery
which is established amongst the boys?
There is not, perhaps, in the kingdom, a more dogmatical
or luxurious set of men, than the pedantic tyrants who
reside in colleges and preside at public schools. A few
good scholars, I grant, may have been formed by
emulation and discipline; but, to bring forward these
clever boys, the health and morals of a number have been
sacrificed.
If marriage be the cement of society, mankind should all
be educated after the same model. Were boys and girls
permitted to pursue the same studies together, those
graceful decencies might early be inculcated which
produce modesty.
To render this practicable, day schools for particular
ages should be established by government, in which boys
and girls might be educated together. The school for the
younger children, from five to nine years of age, ought
to be absolutely free and open to all classes. Botany,
mechanics, and astronomy, reading, writing, arithmetic,
natural history, and some simple experiments in natural
philosophy, might fill up the day; but these pursuits
should never encroach on gymnastic plays in the open
air.
After the age of nine, girls and boys intended for
domestic employments, or mechanical trades, ought to be
removed to receive appropriate instruction, the two
sexes being still together in the morning; but in the
afternoon, the girls should attend a school and do plain
work, millinery, etc. The young people of superior
abilities, or fortune, might now be taught the dead and
living languages, the elements of science, and continue
the study of history and politics. Girls and boys still
together?: yes.
I know that libertines will exclaim, that woman would be
unsexed by acquiring strength of body and mind, and that
beauty, soft bewitching beauty! would no longer adorn
the daughters of men. I am of a very different opinion,
for I think, that, on the contrary, we should then see
dignified beauty, and true grace. Exercise and
cleanliness appear to be not only the surest means of
preserving health, but of promoting beauty.
Humanity to animals should be particularly inculcated as
a part of national education, for it is not at present
one of our national virtues. This habitual cruelty is
first caught at school, where it is one of the rare
sports of the boys to torment the miserable brutes that
fall in their way. The transition, as they grow up, from
barbarity to brutes to domestic tyranny over wives,
children, and servants, is very easy. The lady who sheds
tears for the bird starved in a snare, and execrates the
goading of the poor ox or patient ass, will,
nevertheless, keep her coachman and horses whole hours
waiting for her, when the sharp frost bites. And she who
takes her dogs to bed, and nurses them with a parade of
sensibility, when sick, will suffer her babes to grow up
crooked in a nursery.
My observations on national education are obviously
hints; but I principally wish to enforce the necessity
of educating the sexes together to perfect both, and of
making children sleep at home, that they may learn to
love home; yet by being sent to school to mix with a
number of equals, that they might form a just opinion of
themselves.
Women should be taught the elements of anatomy and
medicine, not only to enable them to take proper care of
their own health, but to make them rational nurses of
their infants, parents, and husbands; for the bills of
mortality are swelled by the blunders of self-willed old
women, who give nostrums without knowing any thing of
the human frame. It is likewise proper to make women
acquainted with the anatomy of the mind; never
forgetting the science of morality, nor the study of the
political history of mankind.
Discussing the advantages which a public and private
education combined might rationally be expected to
produce, I have dwelt most on such as are relative to
the female world, because I think the female world
oppressed. When I wish to see my sex become more like
moral agents, my heart bounds with the anticipation of
the general diffusion of that sublime contentment which
only morality can diffuse.
CHAPTER 13.
SOME INSTANCES OF THE FOLLY WHICH THE IGNORANCE OF WOMEN
GENERATES; WITH CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS ON THE MORAL
IMPROVEMENT THAT A REVOLUTION IN FEMALE MANNERS MIGHT
NATURALLY BE EXPECTED TO PRODUCE.
There are many follies, in some degree, peculiar to
women; but all flowing from ignorance or prejudice, I
shall only point out such as appear to be injurious to
their moral character.
SECTION 13.1.
In this metropolis a number of lurking leeches
infamously gain a subsistence by practising on the
credulity of women, pretending to cast nativities. If
any of them should peruse this work, I entreat them to
answer to their own hearts the following questions, not
forgetting that they are in the presence of God.
Do you believe that there is but one God, and that he is
powerful, wise, and good?
Are you convinced, that he has ordered all things in the
same perfect harmony, to fulfil his designs?
Do you acknowledge that the power of looking into
futurity is an attribute of the Creator?
Say not that such questions are an insult to common
sense for it is your own conduct, O ye foolish women!
The men of old who laid claim to the privilege of
speaking with spirits, insisted, that it was the reward
or consequence of superior temperance and piety. But the
present workers of wonders do not cure for the love of
God, but money.
SECTION 13.2.
Another instance of that feminine weakness of
character, often produced by a confined education, is a
romantic twist of the mind, very properly termed
SENTIMENTAL.
These are the women who are amused by the reveries of
stupid novelists, who, knowing little of human nature,
work up stale tales, and describe meretricious scenes,
all retailed in a sentimental jargon, which equally tend
to corrupt the taste, and draw the heart aside from its
daily duties.
When, therefore, I advise my sex not to read such flimsy
works, it is to induce them to read something superior.
The best method, I believe is for a judicious person,
with some turn for humour, to read novels to a young
girl, and point out, both by tones and apt comparisons
with incidents and characters in history, how foolishly
and ridiculously they caricature human nature.
Besides, the reading of novels makes women, and
particularly ladies of fashion, very fond of using
strong expressions and superlatives in conversation,
which only mimick the dark the flame of passion.
SECTION 13.3.
Ignorance and the mistaken cunning that nature
sharpens in weak heads, render women very fond of dress.
Such a strong inclination for external ornaments appears
in barbarous states, but there the men, not the women,
adorn themselves. The attention to dress, therefore, I
think natural to both sexes. So far is the inclination
carried, that even the hellish yoke of slavery cannot
stifle the savage desire of admiration which the black
heroes inherit, for all the hardly-earned savings of a
slave are commonly expended in a little tawdry finery.
Before marriage it is women's business to please men;
and after, they follow the same scent. Is it then
surprising, that when the sole ambition of woman centres
in beauty, vanity gains additional force, and perpetual
rivalships ensue?
An immoderate fondness for dress, for pleasure and for
sway, are the passions of savages. And that women, from
their education and the present state of civilized life,
are in the same condition, cannot, I think, be
controverted.
SECTION 13.4.
Women are supposed to possess more sensibility,
compassion and stronger attachments, and even humanity,
than men; but the clinging affection of ignorance has
seldom any thing noble in it, and may mostly be resolved
into selfishness. I have known many weak women whose
sensibility was entirely engrossed by their husbands;
and as for their humanity, it was very faint indeed.
But this kind of exclusive affection is the natural
consequence of confined views; how can women be just or
generous, when they are the slaves of injustice?
SECTION 13.5.
As the rearing of children has justly been insisted
on as the peculiar destination of woman, the ignorance
that incapacitates them must be contrary to the order of
things. I have always found horses, an animal I am much
attached to, very tractable when treated with humanity
and steadiness; I am, however, certain that a child
should never be forcibly tamed; for every violation of
justice and reason, in the treatment of children,
weakens their reason.
One striking instance of the folly of women must not be
omitted. The majority of mothers leave their children
entirely to the care of servants: or treat them as if
they were little demi-gods, though I have always
observed, that such women seldom show common humanity to
servants. Nature has so wisely ordered things, that did
women suckle their own children, they would preserve
their own health, and there would be a reasonable
interval between the birth of each child. But, visiting
to display finery, card playing, and balls, not to
mention the idle bustle of morning trifling, draw women
from their duty. But, till more equality be established
in society, we shall not see dignified domestic
happiness.
SECTION 13.6.
Moralists have unanimously agreed, that unless
virtue be nursed by liberty, it will never attain due
strength.
That women at present are by ignorance rendered foolish
or vicious, is, I think, not to be disputed; and, that
the most salutary effects tending to improve mankind,
might be expected from a REVOLUTION in female manners.
From the tyranny of man, I firmly believe, the greater
number of female follies proceed. Asserting the rights
which women in common with men ought to contend for, I
have not attempted to extenuate their faults; but to
prove them to be the natural consequence of their
education and station in society. Let woman share the
rights, and she will emulate the virtues of man; for she
must grow more perfect when emancipated, or it will be
expedient to open a fresh trade with Russia for whips; a
present which a father should always make to his
son-in-law on his wedding day, that a husband may keep
his whole family in order.
Be just then, O ye men of understanding! and mark not
more severely what women do amiss, than the vicious
tricks of the horse or the ass for whom ye provide
provender, and allow her the privileges of ignorance, to
whom ye deny the rights of reason, or ye will be worse
than Egyptian task-masters, expecting virtue where
nature has not given understanding!
Mary Wollstonecraft
1759-1797
The Godwin family grave in St. Peter's Churchyard,
Bournmouth, England
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