A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Title page of the first American edition (1792)
Author: Mary Wollstonecraft
Published: 1792
Importance: Written and published during the French Revolution and in direct response to a presentation of national education by Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, Wollstonecraft's Vindication establishes the natural rights of all women and promotes determining one's education based on social position rather than gender. Her arguments challenged Rousseau's assertions that women need domestic, rather than rational, education. Like Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787) and Original Stories from Real Life (1788), Vindication also promotes the equal education of both genders ("truth must be common to all"), and in a mixed-sex environment (unlike Sarah Trimmer).
Online: http://books.google.com/books?id=qhcFAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
Published: 1792
Importance: Written and published during the French Revolution and in direct response to a presentation of national education by Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, Wollstonecraft's Vindication establishes the natural rights of all women and promotes determining one's education based on social position rather than gender. Her arguments challenged Rousseau's assertions that women need domestic, rather than rational, education. Like Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787) and Original Stories from Real Life (1788), Vindication also promotes the equal education of both genders ("truth must be common to all"), and in a mixed-sex environment (unlike Sarah Trimmer).
Online: http://books.google.com/books?id=qhcFAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false