Mary Wollstonecraft 175997 first major feminist or hyena in petticoats

1
Mary Wollstonecraft 1759-97first major feminist
or hyena in petticoats

• I Life circumstances
• II Family connections
• III Politics and society
• IV The main argument
• V Critical evaluation

2
I Life circumstances

• 1778 begins independent writing career
• 1787 works for the bookshop of Joseph Johnson
• 1790 A Vindication of the Rights of Men
• 1792 A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
• 1792 travels to Paris where Vindication is
  already published
• 1794 relationship with George Imlay and daughter
  Fanny
• 1795 suicide attempt
• 1797 marries William Godwin and dies in childbed

3
Richard Polwheles Obituary

• She died a death that strongly marked the
  distinction of the sexes, by pointing out the
  destiny of women, and the diseases to which they
  are liable

4
Mary Wollstonecraft 1759-97first major feminist
or hyena in petticoats

• I Life circumstances
• II Family connections
• III Politics and society
• IV The main argument
• V Critical evaluation

5
Family connections
marries 1797
William Godwin 1756-1836, anarchist
Mary Wollstonecraft 1759-97, feminist
marries 1816
Mary WollstonecraftShelley 1797-1857 author of
Frankenstein
Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792-1822, poet
6
Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792-1822
7
Mary Wollstonecraft 1759-97first major feminist
or hyena in petticoats

• I Life circumstances
• II Family connections
• III Politics and society
• IV The main argument
• V Critical evaluation

8
III Politics and Society

• marriage is civil death
• William Blackstone, oxford prof
• Intellectual deprivation and lady-like comportment

9
Mary Wollstonecraft 1759-97first major feminist
or hyena in petticoats

• I Life circumstances
• II Family connections
• III Politics and society
• IV The main argument
• V Critical evaluation

10
The Main Argument I

• Sublime Truth
• Beautiful Simplicity (35)

• Remember Burke?
• Sublime pain and danger
• Beautiful joy and pleasure

11
The Main Argument I

• Reason (38)
• History (40)
• Property (42/44)
• Poverty (47)
• Middle class (54)
• Hypocrites (57)
• Eternal justice (91/92)

12
Burke (372)

• The people must respect that property of
  which they cannot partake. They must labour to
  obtain what by labour can be obtained and when
  they find, as they commonly do, the success
  disproportioned to the endeavour, they must be
  taught their consolation in the final proportions
  of eternal justice. (372)

13
Wollstonecraft (92)

• This is contemptible hard-hearted sophistry, in
  the specious form of humility, and submission to
  the will of Heaven
• (of all hypocrites, my soul most indignantly
  spurns a religious one (57))

14
IV The Main Argument II

• State of nature or socialization? (authors
  introduction - 109)
• Civil society as rational society (I - 117)
• The pestiferous purple (I - 125)
• Education (II 129/131/145)
• The feathered race (IV - 171)
• Equality (IX - 277)
• Political corruption (IX - 281)
• Representation (IX - 285)
• National education (XII - 304)

15
Wollstonecrafts Feminism

• Different duties (165)
• Citizens and mothers (283)
• Autonomy (179)
• Public and private (275)

16
Mary Wollstonecraft 1759-97first major feminist
or hyena in petticoats

• I Life circumstances
• II Family connections
• III Politics and society
• IV The main argument
• V Critical evaluation

17
Burke on Wollstonecraft

• one of those desperate, Wicked, and
  mischievously ingenious women, who have brought,
  or are likely to bring Ruin and shame upon all
  those that listen to them.

18
V Critical Evaluation

• Gender equality
• Education
• Personal and political
• Practical philosophy