February 8th

In the transition between chapters one and two of the Rights of Woman, how does Wollstonecraft’s critique of tyranny in political, religious, and military institutions lead her to a critique of the current relationship between men and women? (87)
According to Wollstonecraft, how have arguments regarding male and female “virtues” been used to justify the tyranny of men over women? (87)
Why is it so important to Wollstonecraft’s theory of sex equality that there is no sex to human virtue, and no sex to the human soul? (87, 95, 106) How does she define her views on this question against Milton and Rousseau? (87-91)
Why does Wollstonecraft compare the plight of women to that of soldiers in a standing army? (92)
Why (and under what circumstances) does she compare women to both slaves and tyrants? (90, 93-94, 107) How do these comparisons build upon her broader critique of unjust social, economic, and political hierarchies?
What is Wollstonecraft’s understanding of the present problems with love and marriage? (99-100) How can they be remedied? (99-104) What is her understanding of the overlap between friendship and marriage? (99-101) Is it an appealing marital ideal?
How would you contrast Wollstonecraft’s model of the ideal woman, wife and mother with the women she criticizes in her own time? (99-104)
Why is bodily strength important for both men and women? How does bodily strength affect the relationship between the sexes? What kind of physical education does Wollstonecraft support for men and women? Why, in chapter three of the Rights of Woman, does she begin her discussion of educational reform with physical education?
Analyze the following passage and its significance for Wollstonecraft’s philosophy of sex equality and educational reform:

“…I will allow that bodily strength seems to give man a natural superiority over woman; and this is the only solid basis on which the superiority of the sex can be built. But I still insist, that not only the virtue, but the knowledge of the two sexes should be the same in nature, if not in degree, and that women, considered not only as moral, but rational creatures, ought to endeavor to acquire human virtues (or perfections) by the same means as men, instead of being educated like a fanciful kind of half-being—one of Rousseau’s wild chimeras.” (125)
“I have, probably, had an opportunity of observing more girls in their infancy than J.J. Rousseau.” (130) What is Wollstonecraft’s critique of Rousseau’s theory of female education in chapter three?
“It is time to effect a revolution in female manners…” (133) What does this revolution entail for Wollstonecraft, and why does she focus on the importance of changing “manners?”
What are the moral, social and political implications of this statement: “Women, I allow, may have different duties to fulfill; but they are human duties, and the principles that should regulate the discharge of them, I sturdily maintain, must be the same”? (141)

Citation: Botting, E. H. (2007, February 22). February 8th. Retrieved February 12, 2012, from Notre Dame OpenCourseWare Web site: http://ocw.nd.edu/political-science/mary-wollstonecraft-and-mary-shelley/discussion-questions/february-8th.