History Analysis #1

Enrique Campos Kaufman
02/02/12
A Vindication of the Rights of Women, 1792. Mary Wollstonecraft.
“How much more respectable is the woman who earns her own bread by fulfilling any duty, than themost accomplished beauty…” (Wollstonecraft 2).
Historical Context: In 1700’s women did not have the right to have an education as good as men had. Women were expected to stay in the home and attend thefamily, and men thought that women were naturally inferior to them. Various women did not agree with this way of thinking: women like Germaine de Staël, Catharine Macaulay, and Mary Wollstonecraft(Ellis 449). Mary Wollstonecraft was born in a family in which the father had absolute authority and abused his wife. Mary left her house at age nineteen and went to live with her sister and found outthat her sister’s husband was also abusive. Both Mary and her sister escaped and went to London, where she met intellectuals. It was there where she became inspired to write this document, which arguedthat women had the right to choose their job and be independent from marriage to live.
Thesis: Women did not have the right to work on their own so they would require marriage and prostitution tosustain their life style in society (Wollstonecraft).
Evidence:
* Wollstonecraft said that women had to marry to be able to keep up with their lives.
* Not even the richest women could havethe same jobs as men. They were expected to be in their houses, raising kids, doing chores, and giving pleasure to their husbands.
* Women could not have jobs such as run their own business,practiced physicians, nurses or manage a shop and many others.
* If a woman had a job, it would be at the price of being oppressed and ridiculed by society (Wollstonecraft).
Conclusion: The authorwanted to communicate not just to women, but to men also. Wollstonecraft tried to convince women to fight for their rights and men to understand that women have the same rights and opportunities as men,...