2025, Vol. 7, Issue 11, Part B

Author(s): Ibadamonlin kharkongor and KP Sousa

Abstract: Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) remains one of the earliest and most enduring feminist manifestos, offering a radical critique of eighteenth-century gender norms. Written in response to Enlightenment debates on liberty, reason, and citizenship, Wollstonecraft challenged the systematic exclusion of women from education and public life. This manuscript provides a critical reading of Vindication through the intertwined themes of reason, education, and equality. By situating the text within the intellectual climate of the Enlightenment and the political upheavals of the French Revolution, it highlights how Wollstonecraft appropriated rationalist discourse to question patriarchal institutions. The study also emphasizes her rejection of Rousseau’s model of female education, her advocacy of co-education, and her vision of marriage as a partnership of equals. Through a review of her intellectual legacy, the paper demonstrates how Wollstonecraft’s thought anticipated later feminist philosophies, from liberal to intersectional approaches. While her work bore the limitations of her context, particularly a lack of attention to race and class, it nonetheless remains foundational to feminist pedagogy and political theory. The analysis concludes that Vindication was not only a product of its time but also a trans-historical intervention whose insistence on reason and education as the basis of equality continues to inform contemporary debates on gender justice.

Pages: 126-129 | Views: 79 | Downloads: 45

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