Mary Wollstonecraft

In “Pernicious Effects Which Arise from the Unnatural Distinctions Established in Society,” Mary Wollstonecraft impressively, expresses her clearly feminist view, in a time when women were obviously not supposed to voice their opinions. As I was reading this chapter of Wollstonecraft’s work, I was extremely surprised by her blatant defiance of important parts of that society. Wollstonecraft argued that women were supposed to offer virtue to their husbands and were expected to be diligent mothers, living a simple, sheltered lifestyle. She believed that the women of her time were playing a part, living the life that society had demanded from them. The women did not try to defy these demands because they were unwilling to step outside of the constrictions that they had always known, not knowing that they could achieve greater things in the world. In this chapter, from Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Wollstonecraft argued that women could be doctors, study politics, just living as equals among men.
In this chapter, I found Wollstonecraft’s brief mention of her desire for female representation in areas of politics and law, extremely fascinating. She was clearly a very advanced thinker, having hoped to live as equals and to vote, centuries before it actually happened. Many of Wollstonecraft’s ideas may not seem at all radical in this day and age, but it is very remarkable to see her way of thinking, so many centuries earlier, when women had absolutely no freedom in a man’s world. Mary Wollstonecraft’s writing was remarkable in many ways, and truly enlightening.