Mary Wollstencraft. I will focus on educator Mary Wollstonecraft and her work A vindication of the rights of women.

University Degree Education and Teaching

Ninn Goldsworthy

1009697

ES1201

Mary Wollstonecraft

December 2010.

Within this essay, I will focus on educator Mary Wollstonecraft and her work ‘A vindication of the rights of women’.

Mary Wollstonecraft was born in 1759, an although largely self-educated, she wrote several books including the much publicised ‘A vindication of the rights of Women’ which was published in 1792, and of which research for this essay was taken from. Mary grew up in various places in England on farms run by her parents. Due to the erratic and often violent nature of her father, Mary often had to intervene in fights between her parents, and is quoted as ‘...remembering her father as tyrannical, her mother….was too willingly his victim.’ (1: Wollstonecraft; 1792) Mary and her family moved from place to place as each farm that her parents ran, failed in prosperity and her father’s inheritance started to run out.

After leaving home, Mary worked in several jobs deemed suitable for the female, such as baking and dressmaking. She worked as a companion to an elderly widow in Bath before returning home to nurse her dying mother, and after her mother’s subsequent death, Mary supported her father and paid for her younger siblings’ education. Mary encouraged her Sister to leave her unhappy marriage and her new baby as she was unhappy and depressed. Later, along with lifelong friend, Fanny Blood and her sisters, Mary started a private school in Newington Green, London, for teaching.

Fanny married and moved to Portugal where she contracted consumption and later died which left Mary devastated, and around the same time the school in Newington Green failed. As Mary accrued substantial debts, she was encourage to write and publish a book to help pay for them. ‘Thoughts on the education of daughters’ (1787) was published but had little effect on society. Mary gave all her royalties from the published book to the family of her deceased lifelong friend, Fanny Blood, so that they could relocate to Ireland. (2: Wollstonecraft; 1792)

In 1786, Mary undertook what she considered ‘…demeaning employment as a governess’ (3: Wollstonecraft; 1792) Mary Wollstonecraft left England and went to Ireland where she became the governess to the children of Lord and Lady Kingsborough. It is during her time here that the loathing for nobility became even more apparent as she watched Lady Kingsborough take 4 hours to dress and have nothing else to talk about in the drawing rooms with other noble ladies other than clothing and each other. It was perhaps also during this time that her employer noticed her sharpness of mind and probably the sharpness of her tongue that led to her eventual dismissal and Mary’s subsequent return to England. It is noted in latter works that Mary’s loathing for the noble, possibly noted as being Lady Kingsborough, emerges. Throughout ‘A vindication of the rights of women’ the noble woman is portrayed as ‘sitting in the apex of class and gender systems. She is a failed mother, typifying the trivial sexualised female, obsessed with appearance and living an empty self-gratifying life aimed at male admiration’ (4:Todd;2010). Mary’s such loathing of women wasting their time and ability to seemingly be the plaything of men and not being educated adequately to be good mothers is apparent. To further quote ‘ In this woman, a wife, mother and human creature, were all swallowed up by the factitious character with an improper education, independence and the need to struggle, were the antidotes to this thoughtless existence’ (5:Todd;2010). Mary clearly thought that education would be the key to ending this seemingly pointless, fruitless existence and by giving women and education, making them better mothers. Educational opportunities should be the right of the woman whilst the onus on the importance of motherhood was kept.

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On her return to London, Mary made several notable friends who included William Godwin, who would later become her husband, and the English Publicist, Thomas Paine, after joining a London based cosmopolitan group. Thomas Paine himself was possibly the greatest advocate for freedom in the 1790’s noted himself ‘the subordinate and inferior status of women’.(6: Wollstonecraft; 1792) In ‘An occasional letter to the female sex’ (1775) Thomas quotes ‘…[women are] constrained in their desires in the disposal of their goods, robbed of freedom and will by the laws; slaves of opinion which rules them with absolute sway and construes the slightest appearances into guilt; surrounded on all sides by judges who are once tyrants and their seducers…’ (7: Wollstonecraft; 1792). This is the very oppression that Mary Wollstonecraft proposed to end, that women are treated as nothing more than mere ornamental objects, there to serve their husbands and carry the blood line heirs to nobleman ship. Women must not have a presence thus they be judged.

It could be argued that Mary Wollstonecraft primarily wrote ‘A vindication of the rights of women’ in response to the writings of Jacques Rousseau in his book ‘Emile’. A book that appears to summarise man and also illustrates how a good citizen might be educated. An overall impression of ‘Sophie’ with in the writings is that of one of submissiveness and servitude. Rousseau gives the impression that a girl’s education should be one aimed at making her useful and supportive to her husband and for no other reason. This can be construed as obvious to the reader when one reads ‘A vindication of the rights of women’ especially chapter two entitled ‘The prevailing opinion of a sexual character discussed’ (8: Wollstonecraft; 1792) where Rousseau is cited on more than several occasions. Another opinion could be that it is a response to a society where the privileged and educated man has systematically denied the education and autonomy to women. Whatever the opinion of reason may be, as quoted in the introductionary chapter of the 1992 version of ‘A vindication of the rights of women’ ‘ Mary Wollstonecraft’s own experience from childhood and as a young woman in a class bound and male dominated society influenced and shaped the ideas that would alter develop into a feminist argument’. (9: Wollstonecraft; 1792)

Mary had identified that lack of education of women in society had a profound effect on women. Making them completely dependent on their husbands or taking up meagre paid ‘female’ jobs as a spinster in order to survive. Those of the nobility were not expected to do anything other than bear children and entertain their husbands, whilst women from the lower classes were still expected to work alongside their husbands. Women had little or no rights within the marital home, as soon as she married; she gave up all rights to belongings, land and even her children. If, for whatever, the marriage broke down and the women had to leave, then she left with nothing.

Mary Wollstonecraft’s proposed solution to the ‘problem’ was that all sexes be educated from the age of five and that the government should fund this until the age of nine years. The onus was on education outside of the home, and that boarding schools were deemed the wrong environment as children were separated from their parents and siblings and losing their ‘home education’ and being deprived of love and affection and the influence of their siblings, parents and peers, which could have a profound effect on a child’s health and wellbeing. Mary hypothesized that children should be educated together in the morning and separately in the afternoon with plenty of fresh air available and exercise. Vacations or holidays were deemed too unsettling for a child, something which is reflected in today’s society. Children seldom have good concentration in the last few weeks of term and education attainment is often lower in this time. Also, on return from longer periods of vacation, for example, summer holidays, child’s attainment again is often lower than expected than that further into the academic year. (10: Goldsworthy; 2010)

After writing ‘A vindication of the rights of women’ Mary travelled to France where she could witness the fallout of the revolution for herself. It was during this time she met American, Gilbert Imlay, who she would later borne a child out of wedlock with him. This further fuelled the rumours that Mary Wollstonecraft was a shameless wanton, an indeed she was known as ‘Mrs Imlay’ although a marriage ceremony is not known to have taken place. After travelling alone and Gilberts on going infidelity, Mary moved back to London where she lodged near William Godwin. A friendship, and later courtship, developed. Mary later married Godwin when it was discovered she was pregnant with her second child.

On publication of ‘A vindication of the rights of women’ Wollstonecraft ‘…inspired enthusiasm, outrage, admiration, hostility, eulogies and barely printable insults. Her own contempories called her a shameless wanton, a hyena in petticoats, a philosophizing serpent or wrote jibing epigrams’ (11: Wollstonecraft; 1792)

Despite all this criticism, Mary held her head high and continued to write and be published although her later works did not carry as much punch as ‘A vindication…’ . Despite all her misgivings of female treatment by the male gender, it is ironic that she should die of complications of childbirth; a problem most definitely attributed to being female and thus cannot be blamed on man! Two hundred years after her death, Mary’s work is still celebrated and cited as being amongst the first feminist literature. It is to note that, her second child, a girl also called Mary, would go onto write one of the most famous works of Gothic literature written by a woman… Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’.

To summarise, Mary Wollstonecraft identified problems with education in society as one that favoured boys and left out girls who were deemed as the weaker sex. She theorized that education for women would make them stronger and less reliant on their husbands and able to carry out their motherly tasks more efficiently. In retrospect, Mary had written an entire manifesto on female rights and campaigned for better education for all as well as equality. If Mary Wollstonecraft were alive today, would she be happy to know that her proposed changes are mainly implemented in today’s education? The theoretical answer could be yes, but today’s society is much different than that of the eighteenth century. Different problems for a different culture altogether. Today’s society oversees just as much poverty and class systems and unfair educational practises as did then. Mary would hopefully be proud that girls now attain better than boys and many a highly educated women is in a position of authority. ‘A vindication of the rights of women’ was only the beginning.

Bibliography:

Rousseau, J-J (2004). Emile. 10th ed. EBOOK: Gutenberg.

Todd, J. (2010). Mary Wollstonecraft: A 'Speculative and Dissenting Spirit’. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/wollstonecraft_01.shtml. Last accessed 28th Dec 2010.

Wollstonecraft, M. (1992). A Vindication of the rights of Women. 6th ed. London, UK: Penguin.

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