A Vindication of the Rights of Woman · Chapter
Chapter XIII: Some Instances of the Folly Which the Ignorance of Women Generates; with Concluding Reflections on the Moral Improvement That a Revolution in Female Manners Might Naturally Be Expected to Produce explained
Wollstonecraft condemns the credulity of women who consult fortune-tellers, arguing that such folly stems from ignorance and a lack of rational education.
What happens
Wollstonecraft condemns the credulity of women who consult fortune-tellers, arguing that such folly stems from ignorance and a lack of rational education. She extends her critique to the broader oppression of women, comparing their situation to that of religious dissenters, and insists that only liberty and the cultivation of reason can produce true virtue. She calls for a revolution in female manners, asserting that when women are granted rights and education, they will emulate the virtues of men, and that marriage and society will benefit from mutual respect and shared understanding.
Themes in this chapter
Women's Education and Reason
Wollstonecraft argues that ignorance leads women to folly (e.g., consulting fortune-tellers) and that only the cultivation of understanding can make them virtuous and useful members of society.
Sexual Inequality and Tyranny
She contends that the 'sexual distinction' insisted upon by men is arbitrary, and that female vices are the natural consequence of oppression and denied rights.
Virtue and Morality
Wollstonecraft insists that virtue must be nursed by liberty and grounded in reason, and that without it, marriage and sexual attachment become degraded.
Characters to notice
- Mary Wollstonecraft
Authorial voice throughout; she directly addresses 'ye foolish women' and argues for the emancipation of women through reason and education.
Key passages
“Let woman share the rights, and she will emulate the virtues of man; for she must grow more perfect when emancipated, or justify the authority that chains such a weak being to her duty.”
If women are granted equal rights, they will develop the same virtues as men; either they will improve when freed, or else the oppression that binds them will be proven justified.
Wollstonecraft's central argument for women's emancipation: rights lead to virtue, and the current system is unjust.
“That women at present are by ignorance rendered foolish or vicious, is, I think, not to be disputed; and, that the most salutary effects tending to improve mankind, might be expected from a revolution in female manners, appears at least, with a face of probability, to rise out of the observation.”
It is undeniable that ignorance makes women foolish or immoral, and it seems likely that a radical change in women's behavior would greatly benefit all of humanity.
Wollstonecraft's call for a 'revolution in female manners' as a means to moral and social improvement.