A Vindication of the Rights of Woman · Theme
Sexual Inequality and Tyranny
How A Vindication of the Rights of Woman develops Sexual Inequality and Tyranny.
Wollstonecraft condemns the systematic subjugation of women by men, comparing it to political tyranny, and asserts that denying women civil and political rights is unjust and undermines morality.
Where it surfaces
- To M. Talleyrand Perigord, Late Bishop of Autun
She condemns the exclusion of women from civil and political rights as a form of tyranny inconsistent with reason.
- A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Critique of the social system that keeps women in a state of ignorance and dependence.
- II
Wollstonecraft critiques the systematic subjugation of women through arguments that justify male tyranny.
- Observations on the State of Degradation to Which Woman is Reduced by Various Causes
She critiques the sexual character imposed on women and the tyranny that results from their subordination.
- Chapter V
The chapter exposes how Rousseau's philosophy enforces male authority and female subjugation, violating 'the sacred rights of humanity.'
- Chapter VIII: Morality Undermined by Sexual Notions of Reputation
Wollstonecraft highlights the double standard where men's vice is tolerated while women's reputation is irreparably damaged.
- Chapter XIII: 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
She contends that the 'sexual distinction' insisted upon by men is arbitrary, and that female vices are the natural consequence of oppression and denied rights.