A Macat Analysis of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Wollstonecraft's 1792 work sets out all the chief principles of feminist thought developed by later feminist writers and activists. Written in the aftermath of the French Revolution, which made radical change seem possible, Wollstonecraft challenges the idea that society's oppression of women is entirely natural. While her male contemporaries happily argued for the fundamental freedoms of all men, few were interested in extending these revolutionary rights to women. Infuriated that women should be educated only to serve men, Wollstonecraft asserts that the differences between the sexes are the result of nurture, not nature, and outlines a theory for the equal education of girls and boys.