Central Ideas in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Question 9 • GA-Literature and Composition I
Read the excerpt from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.Consider, I address you as a legislator, whether, when men contend for their freedom, and to be allowed to judge for themselves respecting their own happiness, it be not inconsistent and unjust to subjugate women, even though you firmly believe that you are acting in the manner best calculated to promote their happiness? Who made man the exclusive judge, if woman partake with him of the gift of reason?
Answer
b
by praising women serving in leadership roles
b
by emphasizing the unhappiness of women servants
b
by criticizing men as intellectually inferior to women
b
by pointing out the legal injustice in the exclusion of women
Explanation
Wollstonecraft asks why men should claim freedom and the right to judge their own happiness while denying women the same rights, even if men believe they know what is best for women. Her reference to women sharing the “gift of reason” challenges the justification for excluding them from making decisions. This points to the legal injustice of women’s exclusion, not to praise of women leaders or a claim that men are intellectually inferior.
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