Although I'm only at the very beginning of the book, I'm fascinated by it. That's not to say I agree with 100% of what it says, but I think that if I did, I wouldn't find it to be as interesting.
Right at the beginning, Wollstonecraft states as one of her grievances the poor standard of education available to most women up to and during her time, keeping them, as she puts it, "in perpetual childhood"- just an example of the attitude that women are not merely weaker in body, but weaker in mind, unable to mentally process deeper subjects or think deeply and clearly for themselves. You can see the vicious cycle this created: Women, their studies being restricted merely to the arts and household management, will therefore amuse themselves with lighter and more frivolous entertainments; men seeing this will consider their theory correct; men continue to withhold secondary level education from females.
Although she was what we might consider an early feminist, Wollstonecraft would have probably frowned upon our modern day ones - she clearly states that women are designed to be physically weaker than men, and disapproved of them taking place in strenuous activities. At this point, she is simply arguing for woman's intellectual equality. So far, so good.
I agree with her fears of the dangers presented because of this treatment of women. She argued that by keeping women in this state of existence, they function as being merely ornamental. By the time they reach middle age, and their bloom has left them, they have no reason for staying alive. But I also fear the end that one might reach if you carry her ideas further, perhaps, than she originally meant for them to go; we all know what that is - you don't even have to bother looking around you for it; feminism has a way of forcing entrance into all our lives, whether we like it or not.
So, at this point in the book, I *generally* agree with what it says. But, things can always change, and Maddie has made me fearful that they probably will. :-)
Right at the beginning, Wollstonecraft states as one of her grievances the poor standard of education available to most women up to and during her time, keeping them, as she puts it, "in perpetual childhood"- just an example of the attitude that women are not merely weaker in body, but weaker in mind, unable to mentally process deeper subjects or think deeply and clearly for themselves. You can see the vicious cycle this created: Women, their studies being restricted merely to the arts and household management, will therefore amuse themselves with lighter and more frivolous entertainments; men seeing this will consider their theory correct; men continue to withhold secondary level education from females.
Although she was what we might consider an early feminist, Wollstonecraft would have probably frowned upon our modern day ones - she clearly states that women are designed to be physically weaker than men, and disapproved of them taking place in strenuous activities. At this point, she is simply arguing for woman's intellectual equality. So far, so good.
I agree with her fears of the dangers presented because of this treatment of women. She argued that by keeping women in this state of existence, they function as being merely ornamental. By the time they reach middle age, and their bloom has left them, they have no reason for staying alive. But I also fear the end that one might reach if you carry her ideas further, perhaps, than she originally meant for them to go; we all know what that is - you don't even have to bother looking around you for it; feminism has a way of forcing entrance into all our lives, whether we like it or not.
So, at this point in the book, I *generally* agree with what it says. But, things can always change, and Maddie has made me fearful that they probably will. :-)
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