A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects

Mary Wollstonecraft

Published in 1792, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was the first great feminist treatise. Wollstonecraft preached that intellect will always govern and sought “to persuade women to endeavour to acquire strength, both of mind and body, and to convince them that the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are almost synonimous [sic] with epithets of weakness.”

Bibliographic Record

Contents

Dedication   Advertisement   Introduction

BOSTON: PETER EDES, 1792 NEW YORK: BARTLEBY.COM, 1999

CHAP. I. The rights and involved duties of mankind considered CHAP. II. The prevailing opinion of a sexual character discussed CHAP. III. The same subject continued CHAP. IV. Observations on the state of degradation to which woman is reduced by various causes CHAP. V. Animadversions on some of the writers who have rendered women objects of pity, bordering on contempt CHAP. VI. The effect which an early association of ideas has upon the character CHAP. VII. Modesty.—Comprehensively considered, and not as a sexual virtue CHAP. VIII. Morality undermined by sexual notions of the importance of a good reputation CHAP. IX. Of the pernicious effects which arise from the unnatural distinctions established in society CHAP. X. Parental affection CHAP. XI. Duty to parents CHAP. XII. On national education CHAP. 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 may naturally be expected to produce