Sunday, February 6, 2011

Mary Wollstonecraft's Effect on Women's Rights

Mary Wollstonecraft was a leading figure in the feminist rights movement. In a culture that put women on the level of animals and children Wollstonecraft spoke out. Through her writing she spread her logic to others in 18th century Britain. Through her lifestyle she lived all that she preached. Today her words are just as true as they were when she first put them to paper.

Today, I personally believe, women are almost completely equal to men. "Women cannot, by force, be confined to domestic concerns," Wollstonecraft wrote. This was not possible when she originally began her writing, but today a woman is just as excepted working outside of the home as men are. However work on women's equalities is still preceding. On average the salary of men is still higher than women. Luckily this gap is closing between men and women.

Women were once taught "should they be beautiful, every thing else is needless..." We are lucky to live in a society that now can value an intelligent women. We cannot be ignorant that appearance is still valued though; however it is also now valued in men as well. Take for example the Miss America Pageant. On the Miss America website they say, "Miss America represents the highest ideals. She is a real combination of beauty, grace, and intelligence, artistic and refined. She is a type which the American Girl might well emulate." This values a well-rounded women, a renaissance women if you will, not solely based on looks.

Regarding marriage, Wollstonecraft says love will cease to exist "and the time will inevitably come." She believes marriage is unnecessary and if it must happen it should be of friendship and companionship, not "passion that sinks into mere appetite." This belief is certainly understood today where less and less people are getting married, despite the increasing population. Perhaps people now can marry out of true love and companionship, unlike previously where it was necessary to marry to gain possessions and gain children to help care for the household.

In modern times one can see obvious progressions in women's rights and equality to man from what it once was. We women now can acceptably work outside of the home, have the choice of independence in contrast to marriage, and true intelligence and personality can now be appreciated.

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