Tired of ads?
Join today and never see them again.
Advertisement - Guide continues below
Slavery
For Wollstonecraft, women of her time were slaves to men: they were the legal property of men and forced to obey them. If men had a good reason for treating women like slaves, Wollstonecraft maintains she wouldn't argue with this inequality. But the fact is that men oppressed women without giving any logical reason why. In the end, they just act like bullies and tyrants.
It's important to remember here that Wollstonecraft was writing right after the American Revolution and during the French Revolutions: a time when tyranny and unjustified authority were being questioned like never before. So she hopped on the anti-tyranny bandwagon with A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and demanded that men stop treating women like slaves.
In Vindication, Wollstonecraft argues that slavery can be justified—just not in the case of women.
In Vindication, we learn that there is no difference between gender inequality and full-blown slavery.
Join today and never see them again.
Please Wait...