Free Custom «Was Wollstonecraft's Feminist Theory Suitable Only for Her Own Time?» Essay Paper

Mary Wollstonecraft was a well renowned English writer, philosopher as well as an activist for women’s rights, who constrictively presented her argument clearly advocating for gender equality. She wrote many novels, about the history of French revolution, travel narratives, a children’s book, and a conduct book. She is famous for the support of women’s rights, which she often defended viscously (O'Neill 2002). Sadly, she died at an age of 38, 10 days after giving birth to her second daughter. This paper, therefore, seeks to elaborate and justify that Wollstonecraft's feminist theory was not only suitable only for her own time, but also for the present. The class, race and ethnic neglect of Wollstonecraft's writing has to be taken into contemplation when considering the traits that she identifies and clarifies that result in vindication, and not just because of the significant space she dispenses to literature in the formation of mitigated femininity that she condemns. During Wollstonecraft’s time, in order to become intelligent, it was necessary to talk to the advantaged few who could read. Her feminism is historically strong-minded, depending on the ideological points she criticizes.

Despite her conventional feminism, Mary Wollstonecraft's theme was instrumental in bringing forward her argument during that time (Griffin, 1992). The community often initiated very intense debates on the question of freedom of women. Thud, her book became famous to the point of being published in several countries.

Social movements and feminist ideas in Europe started to emerge while in the international context the United States had started to promote the idea of exchange through the integration, boundary crossing and interrelationship (Brace 2000). This was enhanced by the publication of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft and “The Subjection of Women” in 1869 by Stuart Mill. People were encouraged to migrate across the lands while generating new and powerful advancements concerning the rights of women. They mobilized individual and social movements spread to different regions with the messages of equality and morality.

Feminist notions were further fuelled by the major social, intellectual, political, economic and cultural transformations all over the world during the 19^th century (Wollstonecraft 2005). Socially, the expansion of literacy created greater and more equal access to knowledge for all middle and working strata. Intellectual changes challenged the authority of belief and worked entirely independently from state churches, creating enormous opportunities for feminists to do their meaningful work. Enlightenment thinkers at all times valued the experience and the evidence of the senses portrayed, emphasized acquired rather than endorsed traits and raised fundamental questions about the traits credited to women. Feminists used variety Enlightenment ideas to emphasize further the women's basic humanity and equality next to men with anger. They wanted all their questions to be answered promptly to avoid the instance of being discriminated by men who often see themselves as superior at all time.

Mary Wollstonecraft advocated for equality by providing education to women as to men. She wanted a fair ground for them both in terms of education and knowledge to be acquired (Wollstonecraft 2005). She was not pleased that women were often considered as inferior to men. According to Wollstonecraft, women were not naturally inferior to men, but appeared so only because they lacked education (2005). She further suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings irrespective of their sexes and imagines a social order founded on reasonable ground. Wollstonecraft's feminist theory was not only suitable for her own time, but also for the present time. This fact has seen several groups advocating for better education of the girls, which has gained overwhelming support of the international organization such as the Girl Child Education Fund Organization (Griffin 1992). The purpose of this education is to encourage a just ground for education both for boys and girls so that they can compete with men to be able to those prestigious jobs, for instance, in the field of engineering and medicine which have been male dominated fields. Today things have changed as many women have flocked both to the engineering and medical fields, which have been predominantly dominated by men during the past.

In addition to her larger philosophical opinions, she further goes ahead to provide a strategic framework for the educational plan. In chapter 12 of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, "On National Education", she argues that all children should be sent to a compulsory country day school as well as be provided with teaching at home in order to inspire love for learning and domestic pleasures (Griffin 1992). She furthers states that education should involve both parties, males and females, equally, just like when two get married. Thus, both genders should be educated based on the same model of education.

Wollstonecraft addresses the middle-class in her text, which she often explains as the state that is very natural. Through different approaches A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is modified by a middle-class view of the world. It encourages humility in its readers and attacks the uselessness of the aristocracy (O'Neill 2002). However, Wollstonecraft is not necessarily a friend to the poor; for example, in her plan for education, she suggests further that, after attaining an age of nine, the poor, except for those who are brilliant, should be disconnected from the rich and taught in a separate school. This is indeed very wrong, since she claims to be fighting for equality of education and goes ahead to give room for discrimination (Conniff 1999). In the present day today we have witness who call themselves activists and pretend to fight for the less disadvantaged groups in the society, yet they still advocate other oppressive policies that hurt the less fortunate.

Gender relations analysis by Wollstonecraft focused on criticizing the manner through which the roles that women played had to be rooted in the culture, and the beliefs that men had limited their ability of becoming entirely independent and morally correct in everything that they did. The rationalization of women’s rights has taken a different approach that can be traced back to Universalist perspective by identifying the education that provided to females. The author eventually calls for the women to be awarded an opportunity and room by men to express themselves and their abilities. This would be possible if men regarded them as persons with sanctity and better traits that can have the independence of thought.

She affirms her stand by claiming that the right time to initiate and implement a revolution geared towards restoring women and empowering them is now. The revolution will help them regain their dignity and a place in the society through reforming the community. She further explains her arguments to assert that women should exercise equal rights as men in the public sphere and develop a critique of structural inequalities of the marriage at any time (Brace 2000). Additionally, she wished for a common ground that would allow both men and women to share opinions so that everyone could reason together without women being prejudice based on their ideas. As a result, Wollstonecraft's feminist theory applied during her time and applies in the present time, as many women have raised their voices through activism and their grievances have been taken into consideration by the authorities so as to the reduce discrepancies and create a conducive environment.

On political representation, Wollstonecraft advocated women’s representation. She had the support of other female conservative reformers like Hannah Moore and radicals like Macaulay and Mary Hays (Todd 2000). They challenged a major aspect of male-controlled domination – the subordination of women through substandard education aimed at confining them to mire domestic sphere – through urging a revised conception of that very domestic role that often oppressed women. They further suggested that in terms of responsibility both men and women share collective domestic obligations at all time and that no women were to be forced to do domestic job alone at any given time. Wollstonecraft further argues for a reasoned assent on controlling social values urging the development of rigorous moral understanding. In the present time, these questions raised by the female activists have further created awareness of the female discrimination. As to whether Wollstonecraft's feminist theory was suitable only for her own time, it was rather not only applicable during her life, but is also important today (Todd 2000). Many supporters have created awareness of female rights issues through various channels of media as well as through their seminars with the main objective of mobilizing women so that their grievances can be addressed amicably.

The importance of giving equal chance to women as to men in the political arena for fair representation has seen the emergence of very strong and influential women politicians such as Benazir Bhutto, the assassinated former Pakistan prime minister, who was shot while campaigning for the presidency seat. According Wollstonecraft, women used their sexual power to attract men, because they had acquired so much knowledge that they could only draw power from sexual relationships rather than any independent strength of their own. This ‘sexualisation', also noted in de Beauvoir's comment that women are often designated for ‘the sex favours ', supports male privilege in two distinct ways: firstly, it emphasizes the attractiveness of masculinity and its strength; secondly, it maintains women as weak, while pretending to offer them very limited power (Patemen 2003). As a result, Wollstonecraft's feminist theory is practical in the present day, as some women still use sexual favours to obtain employments or get job promotion within many organizations. Even though Wollstonecraft criticized this idea, she said that women were mealy using sexual favours to get attention from men (Gerson 2002). What happens in reality is many scandals hitting the corporate organizations where some senior managers are accused of demanding sexual favours from female applicants or for the purpose of employment promotions. Many women have given in so due to level of desperation in terms of economic difficulties.

Economically, women should be given the opportunity to look for their source of income to become economically stable and to reduce their level of dependence on men (Brody 2000). The only way to achieve this goal is by dropping the cultural values of a woman as a mere housewife and giving her opportunity to also stand a chance to succeed where other men have succeeded. The aim of this approach is to enable a woman to meet all her financial requirements without necessarily seeking financial assistance from the man. Wollstonecraft further provides her reasons as to why women should be economically independent. Simply because of the feeling of frustration that the women go through when requesting financial assistance from their husbands, she notes that it is heart breaking not to get what you have requested (Bromwich 1995).

On cultural values, the society should learn that the woman of today is different from yesterday’s woman, and that things have drastically changed over this period. The society should find the best way in which it can view women as men and equality grounds should be laid down effectively (Conniff 1999). A woman should be treated well to avoid cases of misunderstanding by other women.

Primarily, the major function of a woman was to provide assistance in domestic chores to ensure that the food was prepared on time for the family, while the primary function of the man was to provide food, security, and shelter. The suggestion of Wollstonecraft is that the woman was suppressed by this cultural value which is wrong. The cultural values should be taken serious as they are often seen as hindrances to the success of advocating for the woman’s right (Gerson 2002). However, human rights are unlimited so that even women should understand that their rights are only limited under some instances, when those rights that they claim as oppressive should be taken as positive motivation. Therefore, again, Wollstonecraft's feminist theory was not only suitable for her own time. It is practically applicable to today’s world. What the writer observed during her lifetime is not quite different from what can be seen today. Many female philosophers have questioned the nature by which the societal and cultural practices and values have treated women. Some of the female philosophers have viciously attacked the societal values that have placed decimation upon them.

This has further resulted in single parenting by those women who consider themselves financially stable and can cater for their own bills and their family, thus prompting cases of family break ups. This family brake ups have hit the society so much that sometimes we are left to wonder whether the family of today has changed the meaning of marriage as the union of woman and man with the intention of staying together harmoniously for a lifetime (Patemen 2003). She further advocated that women were to be fairly paid and they should get the civil right to own property, since women are not slaves and they deserve to be owning property just like men of any race. Thus, the author’s theory not applies in the present world after having experienced its inception in the past.

Women were never seen as important members of the society and their opinions and suggestion were often ignored. In addition, they were seen as inferior to their male counterparts even in marriages, which often raised various question as to the rights of women. Currently women can own property and enjoy other rights owing to the changes in the cultural values as well as societal norms (Bromwich 1995). This has given women the freedom, which those people like Wollstonecraft fought for rigorously. This has provided the legal chance to enjoy the art of equality that was often believed to have been taken away from women by the society and particularly men.

In conclusion, women’s equality is important and necessary irrespective of the colour of the skin or the country of origin. Opportunity should be given to all based on equal chances for everyone. People should avoid discrimination based on gender, as it can sometimes build up tension within the society. Wollstonecraft was a renown and respected philosopher who pointed out they agony felt by women and justified that they should not be considered inferior to men simply because of their limited level of education (Wollstonecraft, Barnard & Shapiro 2013). She also explains why women and men should be equal in matters of domestic setup. Culturally, women have always been given the sole responsibility of taking care of all activity ranging from cleaning of all utensils to cleaning the whole house, while husbands literately do nothing in terms of helping. She further explains that both wife and husband should carry out domestic chores on a fifty-fifty basis. After all, marriage is a symbol of unity (Conniff 1999). Wollstonecraft's feminist theory provides an in-depth understanding of what most women during that period of existence went through, and she further companioned for their rights. Additionally, reconciliation between women and men should be given a priority simply because men have sometimes been seen as superior to women. Today, both men and women stand a chance of equal economic development and prosperity when all other factors are kept constant. For instance, there are very successful business women who have won over many other businesses and have attained success in their field of operations.

Conservatives of the 18^th century assert that women were unequal to men at any given time. On the one hand, their love for clothes is labelled ‘very natural', and the word ‘natural' is heavily emphasized with a positive value. In culture, however, women are routinely belittled for liking clothes too much, which is a minor and an unimportant preference. Thus, when women are told to encourage their ‘natural' taste for clothes, they sometimes once more are labelled as trivial and unimportant people incapable of severe thought. Philosophy has a circular rationality, and it is difficult to break this spell.

While the author is sure not to criticize current type of marriages, she appreciates the institution of marriage entirely, as it encompasses the agreement of two individuals who love each other. However, she presents her case from the perspective that marriage should be the best thing in life filled with love and understanding while embracing the classical attributes of inseparable friendship. This relationship should include choice, equal contribution, relevance in reason and mutual understanding. In addition, apprehension on each other's righteousness serves as a weak substitute in a relationship (Griffin 1992). An appropriate relationship that does not approach true love in a classical way provides a clear avenue, as opposed to classical idealisms that result in marriages through all possible means with the negative association of identity and rationality. Classical relationships have negative impacts, since both parties give up their independence for the dependence on each other brought forth by a strong bond that arises through the love of each other's attributes and traits. The writer further advocates that marriage as an institution should embrace the relationship that exists between friends to stop the traditional practices that have been upheld by different families of the 18^th century. Wollstonecraft advocates a way of reconfiguration that should be made to marriage in order to get the central liberal value.