Wollstonecraft and women education

Wollstonecraft and women education

Introduction

In the 18^th Century, gender equality remained just a dream in many countries. In as much as women wished to have access to some crucial sectors of the society, there were barriers placed by patriarchy and other structures to discriminate against them. It was around this time that Mary Wollstonecraft wrote her book, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. In this masterpiece that was later recognized as a feminist work of art, Wollstonecraft advocated majorly for the education of women. She was of the opinion that the education of women was the main tool in the attainment of emancipation. This paper presents the ideas of Wollstonecraft, majorly concerning the education of women and its impacts on relationships.

Discussion

The declarations of Wollstonecraft that women were capable of learning were ineffably unheard of during her time, and she attempted to deconstruct this notion by asserting that women’s minds were real organs. During this time, most people were of the idea that women are emotional creatures whose minds were only around the heart where all emotions and feelings originated. Wollstonecraft used medical explanations of the brain and its nerves in justifying literary philosophy and its relevance in the life of a woman as well as the men. Due to these beliefs, she proposed that women should be taken through an education system that trains them to be independent of childhood, thereby thinking and taking actions upon themselves (Wollstonecraft 88). She believed that women, like men, experience problems that are related to the functioning of the body or the minds, and these problems needed to be solved with higher cognition that can only be attained through education. She, therefore, argued that women should be put through curriculums that focused on the improvement of the body as well as the mind just as their male counterparts. These programs would benefit women by putting them in the same position as men.

She rejected the popular notion that girls were less active as compared to boys. Having been a mother herself and having raised an interacted with girls of all ages, she believed that there was an aspect of philosophical materialism in the way the woman thought (Wollstonecraft 110). In her defense of the girl child education, she spends a great deal of time responding to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a philosopher who believed in the differences in the minds and bodies of girls and boys. She uses her experiences in a practical setting to respond to Rousseau, indicating that she has spent a considerable amount of time with women and girls more than her counterpart Rousseau had. She attempts to say that there is no difference between girls and boys, and only the question of sex makes girls and boys different from one another. Without sex, there would be no potential danger having both girls and boys in interacting freely in the same room. She, therefore, argued that the intellectual interests of women should be placed in the same capacity as that of men, having proved that there was no difference between the two. She added that the mind of a woman and that of a man are structured in the same way, and the difference in terms of intellectual capability exists concerning the absence or presence of education.

In her advocacy for the education of women, she begins by defending the place of the woman in the home. She recognizes the need for the woman to play a role in the family setting and the making of a happy home. However, she comments that the house should not be isolated from public life as it had been a common practice during her time. She viewed the home as an excellent environment for the social and civic life of the woman and therefore argued that public life is of great importance to individuals as well as families. In this essence, Wollstonecraft maintains that men and women both have critical roles to play in the family set up.

This beginning provided a good foundation for Wollstonecraft to coin the idea of women’s education in the paragraphs that followed. Wollstonecraft believed that the knowledge of the young ones was a primary responsibility of the women, and therefore to correctly perform this duty, they also needed to have an education. She discusses the woman as an individual to whom a lot of responsibilities have been bestowed and among them, ensuring that the children get a good education. She asserted that educating women strengthened marriages by making women independent, thereby leading to a more stable relationship (Falco 03). She believed that stable marriages are those where the woman is educated. According to Wollstonecraft, the key to a successful relationship is educating the woman because women needed to have the skills that their male counterparts had in order to keep the marriage in the balance. This form of stability may also provide a good opportunity for children to get an education too. Wollstonecraft makes it clear in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman that women have the ability to be men’s equals. Because of this ideology, it makes no sense considering the education of women as less important to that of men.

Wollstonecraft advocated for the development of national establishments, which provide room for the removal of education matters from the parental choice that was overly single-sided. Nationalizing education was a way of setting states on the task of creating policies and allocating resources that promote equality in education. Wollstonecraft’s arguments set the stage for the discussion of critical matters of equitable education that wipes away the gender-based discrimination that had been extensively experienced in the field of education in the 18^th Century. She proposed that girl child education should not be relative to boy child education and should, therefore, be handled with equality, alongside each other. (Wollstonecraft 159). Wollstonecraft asserted that men discriminate against women and have refused to grant them access to education because they fear what the women would be capable of once they receive an education like the men. This point enabled men to rethink their position with regard to educating girls. She accepts the idea that women should participate in the provision of leisure in relationships, but this must not bar them from the pursuit of equal education opportunities. For both men and women to fulfill their roles perfectly, women, too, need to have a good education that matches the required standards of civilization.

A look at the current society indicates that Mary Wollstonecraft presented ideas that have since been implemented. The current education system is not based on naturalization but places a huge emphasis on educating people of all genders in an equal manner. Today, education is a constitutional right for the girl child as well as for the boy child. Discriminations against the girl child in terms o education have become so rare even in some of the societies that may be considered less civilized in Africa, Asia, or Latin America. The current education system borrows a lot from the ideas of Mary Wollstonecraft because she had envisioned a society where boys and girls would have equal access to education. The modern education system has empowered women so much that the boy child is almost being forgotten. Emancipation has been realized across the board, and this has led to the rising of some of the most powerful women in society. A good example of an emancipated, powerful, and empowered woman is Angela Merkel of Germany, who was named by Forbes as the most powerful woman in eight straight years prior to 2015 (Owusu-Gyamfi 192). Another example is Hillary Clinton, who has remained a key political figure in the politics of the United States Democratic Party. Ruth Dreifuss, another highly educated woman, became the first of her gender to be declared the president of Switzerland. The impacts of women education and emancipation have been realized in many continents of the world, indicating that most of the ideas proposed by Mary Wollstonecraft about the education of women have come to pass.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Wollstonecraft was overly feminist in her tone, but she succeeded in her attempts to justify the importance of women’s education. She remains one of the essential contributors to the fight for the emancipation of women since the fruits of her advocacy have been experienced in modern society. Currently, both boys and girls have an equal chance of access to education.

Works cited

Falco, Maria J., ed. Feminist Interpretations of Mary Wollstonecraft. Penn State Press, 2010.

Owusu-Gyamfi, Clifford. “Who Won the Debate in Women Education? Rousseau or        Wollstonecraft?.” Journal of Education and Practice 7.6 (2016): 191-193.

Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman with Strictures on Political and      Moral Subjects. London: J. Johnson, 1792.