Key Thinkers - Mary Wollstencraft

Question 1

Who was Wollstonecraft

Answer 1

-born 1759 died 1797
-developed classical liberal ideas with important publication ‘a vindication of the rights of women’ 1792
-despite strong link to feminist ideology her arguments were rooted in liberal philosophy

Question 2

What was the enlightenment

Answer 2

-intellectual movement 1600s advocating for reason over religion, freethinking v blind faith + rational scrutiny rather than spirituality

Question 3

What was Wollstonecrafts primary claim

Answer 3

-the enlightenment’s optimistic view of human nature being + assumption that it was guided by reason should apply to all human beings irrespective of gender

Question 4

How did contemporary society treat women

Answer 4

-society + state implied women not rational + thus denied individual freedom + equality
-rarely allowed landownership or remunerative employment + couldn’t vote for those who governed them
-once married a woman had little legal protection against violence from her spouse + no recourse for divorce

Question 5

What did Wollstonecraft call this mistreatment of women

Answer 5

-a blatant violation of ‘government by consent’

Question 6

How did Wollstonecraft apply this to the whole of society

Answer 6

-asserted the effective denial of liberty to an entire gender left society vulnerable to doctrines that threatened while spirit of Enlightenment

Question 7

How did Wollstonecraft respond to the revolutions

Answer 7

-supported American rev + Fr rev
-stressed support for Republican gov + formal equality involving constitutional defence of individual rights

Question 8

What did Wollstonecraft argue needed to be corrected

Answer 8

-female complicity in their subjugation
-for this to be corrected she argued there needed to be formal education to all women
-without this intuition individuals could never develop their rational faculties, never realise individual potential + never recognise ‘absurdity’ of illiberal principles like divine right of kings