4. according to wollstonecraft, in what way is the female inferior to the men?

Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women

Essay Questions

1. Wollstonecraft explains that "Women are told from their infancy, and taught by the example of their mothers, that a piddling noesis of man weakness, justly termed cunning, softness of temper, OUTWARD obedience, and a scrupulous attention to a puerile kind of propriety, will obtain for them the protection of human; and should they exist cute, every matter else is needless, for at least twenty years of their lives" (84). This argument points to the process of socialization that teaches girls to cultivate an identity of computing childishness and fragility. What are the effects of molding girls in this way when it comes to marriage and motherhood (67, 95, 100, 119); obedience (84, 91, 93); false refinement and appearances (87, 89, 91, 93, 99, 107); and concrete delicacy (95, 99, 105). You may choose to focus on one of these topics in a comprehensive manner, or seek to analyze passages from a number of these topics.

2. Throughout affiliate ii Wollstonecraft argues that educational activity has stunted women'south intellectual, emotional, and spiritual growth (run across pages 84, 88, and 89). She also highlights that the all-time didactics (for men and women) is "such an exercise of the agreement as is best calculated to strengthen the torso and form the heart" (86). Summarize what Wollstonecraft believes to be the inadequacies of education for women. After, explain what she imagines would be an ideal education. What limitations do you run across in her judgments about education? Present your assessment of Wollstonecraft's ideas in a concluding paragraph.

iii. Explain Wollstonecraft'due south attitude toward the aristocracy and the military, as exemplified by the following quotation: "But for this epoch we must wait–wait, perhaps, till kings and nobles, aware by reason, and, preferring the existent dignity of homo to childish state, throw off their gaudy hereditary trappings; and if so women do not resign the arbitrary power of dazzler, they volition testify that they have LESS heed than man" (87, meet also 67, 104, 112). Specify the trouble that Wollstonecraft has with these institutions. Why does she call back that reason is an antitoxin to tyranny from rulers of states and homes?

iv. In the 18th century, virtue was defined equally "A particular moral excellence; a special manifestation of the influence of moral principles in life or conduct" (OED). Even so, Wollstonecraft's repeated references to virtue mean something more. She urges that "Women ought to endeavour to purify their hearts; only can they do so when their uncultivated understandings make them entirely dependent on their senses for employment and entertainment, when no noble pursuit sets them above the petty vanities of the solar day, or enables them to adjourn the wild emotions?" (94). She also sees virtue as as well often "sacrificed to temporary gratifications, and the respectability of life to the triumph of an hour" (107). Identifying one other passage in the text that also addresses the thought of virtue, begin your essay by explaining what Wollstonecraft ways by virtue in three passages. In three to four torso paragraphs, discuss why Wollstonecraft's definition of virtue is important for transforming women from dependent creatures into valuable members of society. In your determination, you may discuss whether her definition of virtue has relevance in today's society.

5. Wollstonecraft is quite skeptical about love, stating baldly that there is a need to "restrain this tumultuous passion, and to prove that information technology should not be immune to dethrone superior powers, to usurp the sceptre which the understanding should ever coolly wield" (93). Why does she say that "Fondness is a poor substitute for friendship!" (95). Run across likewise pages 94, 96, 100. What does she call back are the consequences of teaching women to believe in the lofty powers of romantic love? Discuss why Wollstonecraft damns romantic beloved. In a last paragraph, explain why you agree or disagree with her.

Scaffolding Assignments

( Informal assignments that provide an opportunity to reflect on or relate to the text but do not assume mastery of the text.)

Informal Writing

A paraphrase involves restating complex ideas from a source in your ain words. Beneath are some quotations from Capacity 2 and 3 of Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Every bit a group, paraphrase the quotation that correspondents to your group number. Aim to condense the quotation and to explain the chief ideas, non every sentence. You will share this paraphrase with everyone in the final xv minutes of class.

i. "To do every thing in an orderly style, is a most important precept, which women, who, generally speaking, receive just a hell-raising kind of educational activity, seldom attend to with that degree of exactness that men, who from their infancy are cleaved into method, discover. This negligent kind of guesswork . . . prevents their generalizing matters of fact, then they practice to-twenty-four hours, what they did yesterday, only because they did it yesterday" (88).

2. "As a proof that education gives this appearance of weakness to females, we may case the example of military men, who are, like them, sent into the earth before their minds have been stored with knowledge or fortified by principles. The consequences are similar; soldiers acquire a trivial superficial cognition, snatched from the muddied current of conversation, and, from continually mixing with gild, they gain, what is termed a knowledge of the world; and this acquaintance with manners and customs has frequently been confounded with a knowledge of the human being heart" (88-ix).

3. "Besides, the woman who strengthens her trunk and exercises her mind volition, past managing her family and practising various virtues, become the friend, and not the humble dependent of her husband; and if she deserves his regard by possessing such substantial qualities, she will non find information technology necessary to conceal her affection, nor to pretend to an unnatural coldness of constitution to excite her husband's passions. In fact, if we revert to history, we shall find that the women who have distinguished themselves take neither been the most cute nor the most gentle of their sexual practice" (95).

iv.  "How women are to exist in that land where there is to exist neither marrying nor giving in marriage, we are not told. For though moralists have agreed, that the tenor of life seems to testify that MAN is prepared by diverse circumstances for a hereafter country, they constantly concur in advising Woman just to provide for the present. Gentleness, docility, and a spaniel-like affection are, on this basis, consistently recommended equally the cardinal virtues of the sex; and, disregarding the arbitrary economy of nature, one writer has declared that information technology is masculine for a woman to be melancholy. She was created to be the toy of man, his rattle, and it must jingle in his ears, whenever, dismissing reason, he chooses to be amused" (100).

five. "Merely I however insist, that not merely the virtue, but the Knowledge of the ii sexes should exist the same in nature, if not in degree, and that women, considered non simply as moral, but rational creatures, ought to try to acquire human virtues (or perfections) past the SAME means as men, instead of being educated like a fanciful kind of HALF existence, one of Rousseau'due south wild chimeras" (106).

six. "Women deluded by these sentiments, sometimes boast of their weakness, cunningly obtaining ability past playing on the WEAKNESS of men; and they may well celebrity in their illicit sway, for, like Turkish bashaws, they accept more than real power than their masters: merely virtue is sacrificed to temporary gratifications, and the respectability of life to the triumph of an 60 minutes" (107).

7. "[T]ill women are more rationally educated, the progress of man virtue and comeback in cognition must receive continual checks. And if information technology be granted, that adult female was non created but to gratify the appetite of human being, nor to be the upper retainer, who provides his meals and takes intendance of his linen, it must follow, that the first care of those mothers or fathers, who really attend to the pedagogy of females, should exist, if not to strengthen the body, at least, not to destroy the constitution by mistaken notions of beauty and female excellence" (107).

8. "Girls and boys, in short, would play harmless together, if the distinction of sexual activity was not inculcated long earlier nature makes any difference. I will, go further, and affirm, as an indisputable fact, that most of the women, in the circle of my observation, who have acted like rational creatures, or shown any vigour of intellect, have accidentally been immune to run wild, as some of the elegant formers of the fair sex would insinuate" (110-11).

9. "Let not men then in the pride of power, use the same arguments that tyrannic kings and venal ministers accept used, and fallaciously assert, that woman ought to be subjected because she has always been and then. Only, when man, governed by reasonable laws, enjoys his natural freedom, let him despise woman, if she do not share it with him; and, till that glorious period arrives, in descanting on the folly of the sex, let him non overlook his own" (112).

10.  "Information technology is time to outcome a revolution in female manners, time to restore to them their lost dignity, and make them, equally a part of the human species, labour by reforming themselves to reform the world. It is fourth dimension to separate unchangeable morals from local manners" (113).

In-Class Writing

(In-class 10-minute writing assignments that might be discussed with whole class. Students might also be asked to return to what they wrote at the beginning of the class, and to add to or to brand changes to what they previously thought.)

1. At the beginning of Chapter 3 (see pages 109-111), Wollstonecraft suggests that children, especially girls, need to exist given more freedom to play independently. The situation she describes is pertinent today equally parents continue to debate "helicopter" (over-protective) vs. "gratuitous-range" (relaxed) parenting. Do you call up Wollstonecraft would subscribe to the "helicopter" or "free-range" parenting model? Do yous agree with her parenting philosophy? Practise you think modern children are given too much or too little freedom?

2. At the end of Chapter 3 (come across pages 119-120), Wollstonecraft observes that without discipline and a college sense of purpose, men and women requite in to distractions, "noisy pleasures, and bogus passions" (120). Exercise you find this to be true today? What vices or distractions exercise you have, and how do they undermine your goals in life?

3. In her letter to M. Talleyrand-Périgord, Wollstonecraft bluntly states that "from the weak rex to the weak father of the family; they are all eager to shell reason" (67). What do you think is the connexion she makes between kings and patriarchal heads of households? (An additional practise, ask students to write a protestation letter.)

iv. Wollstonecraft judges that "The great misfortune is this, that they both [soldiers and women] larn manners before morals, and a noesis of life earlier they take from reflection, any acquaintance with the thou ideal outline of human nature. The consequence is natural; satisfied with common nature, they become a casualty to prejudices, and taking all their opinions on credit, they blindly submit to authorisation" (89-90). Why does she make a connection betwixt soldiers and women? Practise you hold that soldiers and/or women develop "manners" earlier "morals."

5. In several passages in the text, Wollstonecraft attacks the idea that women should be still and passive, while men should be physically active. What do you think of practise? Why does Wollstonecraft feel that it is of import for women to be initiated into physical activity early on? Run into pages 95, 99, 105.

6. Do y'all think that differences between the sexes are innate and biological, or nurtured and taught? Depict an example that supports your signal of view. What does Wollstonecraft think? Explain why you agree or disagree with her.

Brusk Answer / Critical Response

(Opportunities to write creatively or imaginatively about the text, and shared with the class.)

1. Wollstonecraft talks virtually ways that eighteenth-century women become "slaves to their bodies" (111). What does she mean by this? In what means is this still true today? How might Wollstonecraft propose that we gainsay some of our modern problems with women's body image issues?

ii. Wollstonecraft is debating the purpose of education: whether information technology is designed to advance the individual toward virtue, or to help one "fix for life." Think of your purposes in getting an teaching. What does a college didactics mean for you, or for your family? Are you the outset in your family to go to college? Practice you see instruction as a journey of personal growth, equally a training for a future job, every bit both?

three. What does information technology take be a radical? Remember about #blacklivesmatter, Occupy Wall Street, the move to legalize gay marriage, or New York Fast Food workers' fight to raise the minimum wage. What strategies did one of these groups use to achieve their goals? What do you see is a connection between their strategies and Wollstonecraft'southward, if whatsoever?

Terminologies Quiz

(Open up book quiz given toward the end of the unit of measurement to re-affirm key terms.)

Wollstonecraft often uses vocabulary whose significant has changed from her own fourth dimension to ours. For each of the post-obit word requite a i to 2 sentence caption of how Wollstonecraft is using the term. This should non be a dictionary definition; information technology should reflect Wollstonecraft's ideas. Notes are permitted.

1. Virtue:
2. Reason:
3. Passions:
4. Employments:
5. Constitution:
6. Modesty:
7. Manners:
8. Sensualist:
9. Corporeal accomplishments:
10. Aristocracy:

Instructor ' due south Guide for Terminologies

1. virtue (84, 107)—alludes to reason, knowledge, understanding, not just moral goodness or sexual purity
2. reason (88)—logical thinking and deductive thought-processes, a key theory arising out of the Enlightenment
3. passions (96)—strong, wayward feelings or 'appetites,' not necessarily sexual
4. employments (96, 98)—activities in which one spends i'due south time, hobbies
5. constitution (105)—physical health and strength
6. modesty (107)—respectable humility and shyness, usually false and put on
7. manners (02)—the behaviors and mannerisms deemed appropriate for respectable, upper-center class women, i.e., fragility, demureness, soft-spokenness, passivity
8. sensualist (90)—someone devoted wholly to physical and sexual pleasure
9. corporeal accomplishments (88)—frivolous achievements and passive activities that go along women occupied as entertainment for men, i.eastward., embroidering, sewing, flower arranging, water-colour painting, singing
10. aristocracy (87)—the nobility, highest class of society with heredity rights, especially the French royals

Vocabulary Journal

(*Handout vocabulary listing before reading. **Definitions from New Oxford American Dictionary)

Instructions: Highlight and define the following terms from your reading.

1. vindication (championship)—
2. sagacious/sagacity (88)—
3. tyranny (87)—
4. hereditary (87)—
5. cypher/nada (xc)—
6. libertine (94)—
7. insipid (92)—
8. eradicate (93)—
9. abhorrence (93)—
10. gallantry (93)—
11. dissimulation (94)—
12. arrayal (95)—
13. voluptuous (96)—
14. coquettish/coquetry (97)—
15. uncultivated (97)—
16. apple-polishing (99)—
17. docility (100)—
18. indolent (101)—
19. emancipated (101)—
20. sober (102)— serious
21. autocrat (107)—
22. eloquence (108)—
23. inculcated (110)—
24. ramifications (112)—
25. fallible (115)—
26. encumbered (116)—
27. yoke (116)—
28. impotent (117)—
29. discriminating (117)—
30. exertions (120)—

Instructor'southward Guide for Vocabulary Journal

1. vindication—the justification for some human action or belief
2. sagacious/sagacity (88)—showing an power to understand hard ideas and situations and to make proficient decisions
3. tyranny (87)—roughshod or oppressive dominion or governance
4. hereditary (87)—holding a position or championship that was passed on from your parent or an older relative
5. cypher/cipher (90)—a person who has no power or is not important
6. libertine ()—a person, particularly a man, who behaves without moral principles or a sense of responsibility, particularly in sexual matters.
7. insipid (92)—defective vigor, energy, or uniqueness
8. eradicate (93)–to remove something completely: to eliminate or destroy
9. abhorrence (93)–to dislike someone or something very much
10. gallantry (93)–very brave behavior: polite attention shown by a homo to a adult female
11. dissimulation (94)–to hide under a false appearance
12. affectation (95)–the act of taking on or displaying an mental attitude or mode of behavior not natural to oneself or not genuinely felt
13. voluptuous (96)–giving pleasure to the senses
14. coquettish/coquetry (97)–a flirtatious human activity or mental attitude
15. uncultivated (97)–underdeveloped, non studied or directed
16. abject (99)—degrading or unpleasant
17. docility (100)–easily taught, led, or controlled
18. indolent (101)–not liking to work or be active
19. emancipated (101)–to free someone from someone else's command or power
20. sober (102)—solemn, serious, sensible
21. despot (107)—a person who has a lot of ability over other people
22. eloquence (108)—discourse marked by force and persuasiveness
23. inculcated (110)—to crusade something to be learned by someone by repeating it once again and again
24. ramifications (112)–something that is the result of an action, determination, etc.
25. fallible (115)–capable of making mistakes or existence wrong
26. encumbered (116)–to cause problems or difficulties for someone
27. yoke (116)–something that causes people to exist treated cruelly and unfairly especially by taking away their freedom
28. impotent (117)–lacking ability or strength
29. discriminating (117)—having or showing refined sense of taste or skilful judgment
30. exertions (120)–physical or mental effort

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Source: https://commons.hostos.cuny.edu/columbiacommoncoreathostos/vindication/

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