A Vindication of the Rights of Woman Education Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #1

By individual education, I mean, for the sense of the word is not precisely defined, such an attention to a child as will slowly sharpen the senses, form the temper, regulate the passions as they being to ferment, and set the understanding to work before the body arrives at maturity. (2.9)

The main purpose of education (for Wollstonecraft) is to strengthen a person's reason so that they can control their emotions. Being able to control our emotions is what separates humans from animals, and the stronger a person's reason is, the better.

Quote #2

It follows then, I think, that from their infancy women should either be shut up like eastern princes, or educated in such a manner as to be able to think and act for themselves. (3.30)

Wollstonecraft thinks that there can't be a middle ground. Either women should be shut away from society altogether, or they should be given the mental tools they need in order to engage the world as rational adults.

Quote #3

The same love of pleasure, fostered by the whole tendency of their education, gives a trifling turn to the conduct of women in most circumstances. (4.24)

Women are raised to look pretty and to seek out pleasure wherever they can find it. But this lack of discipline keeps them from ever learning to control their emotions. This upbringing leads many of them to become petty and cruel.