A Study Of Feminist Ideas In A Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, a monumental and systematic work in feminist history, is Mary Wollstonecraft’s splendid achievement and has received widespread attention for ages. Miriam Kramnick describes it as “the feminist declaration of independence". It is claimed as the first feminist work calling for reform on female manners and female awareness in English history. Owing to this? Wollstonecraft is seen as a feminist pioneer for her avocations of equality and reason.The thoughts expressed in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman are so pioneering that they go ahead of its time. Today, we can summarize them in terms of three great influences on the world. First, the thoughts shed a new light on human history calling for the attention to women’s equality?freedom and reason. Second, the thoughts are so pervasive and provoking that give impetus to woman’s liberation. With the emergence of the feminist movement?Wollstonecraft’s advocacy of women’s equality and critiques of conventional femininity are put into practice. Third, Wollstonecraft’s thoughts are received so well by the later generations that a lot of the pioneering thoughts have come true?though she was ignored or criticized by her contemporaries. This thesis aims to analyze Wollstonecraft’s pioneering feminist ideas in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in terms of her calling for education, polity and morality. Her efforts for women to reshape their identities and rights ultimately made woman’s rights a career and exerted everlasting influence on the later generation feminists.This thesis includes five chapters. The first chapter is an introduction, introducing briefly Wollstonecraft and her A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. The second chapter mainly analyzes the enlightened thoughts in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Chapter three describes the enlightened feminist ideas in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Chapter four analyzes the influence of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and the last chapter makes a conclusion on the whole thesis.