Not The Humble Dependant

Penguin Book’s edition of Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman has an interesting quote on the cover that in my opinion accurately brings up the main points of our readings so far. “It is time to effect a revolution in female manners– time to restore them to their lost dignity– and make them, as a part of the human species” (49). So the first point is that there should be a change in the manners of women. Wollstonecraft touches base on these ideas by saying, “the woman who strengthens her body and exercises her mind will…become the friend and not the humble dependant of her husband (25).

Wollstonecraft acknowledges that women are indeed inferior to men when it comes to physical aspects, but she carefully adds that if given the chance, women could be intellectually superior to men. The women who ‘strengthens her mind and exercises her body’ will become the friend in a sense that other women will look up to her, admire her, and follow in her footsteps. They will not become what men want them to become that is ‘slaves of their own desires’ (56).

Wollstonecraft states that, “it will also require some time to convince women that they act contrary to their real interest” (49). I believe that women need to think of themselves as their own bosses; that nobody is holding reigns to them controlling which path they take. I believe that the only way for women to be treated equally in our society and in our planet is if women see themselves as equals.

In this generation a book with as many generalizations about gender roles and opinions as this one does would probably be criticized. However, it is important to understand that in the 1700s if someone could make a general statement about anything, it meant that they had enough knowledge to do so. It meant that that person had enough time on their hands and enough intelligence to read novels and comprehend them. So for Mary Wollstonecraft, and many people at the time, this book is groundbreaking. It not only opens up whole new ideas of what women are capable of, but it also allows for women to not blame themselves that society has corrupted them in such a way to fight against one another over who is more beautiful. Women, in my opinion, must befriend one another and act together in order to gain back the strength and power that they so rightfully own.