Arguably, Mary Wollstonecraft can be said to be the “Mother of feminism” or rather “the first feminist”. As a matter of fact, most of her work focuses on the education as well as the rights of women. For instance, a Vindication of the rights of Women is a good example on how she focuses the status of women in the society and it displays pure thoughts of feminism. Undoubtedly, most people interpret her work as well as life in different ways depending on the perception of the writer as far as the equality of women is concerned. On the other hand, Jeans Jacques Rousseau is another writer who has had a great impact on the rights and education among women in the contemporary society. Precisely, his notion of natural education as well as campaigning for breast-feeding has had a significant impact on the issues concerning women, (John & Maaike, 1994, pp. 115-120). Lately, his greatest work has a considerable manipulation on the accepted principles of education. As a matter of fact, the two writers had different perceptions concerning rights as well as education among women in the society. However, at one point they did agree on certain points over the same issue. Therefore, this essay will be limited to the comparison and contrasting of Rousseau’s and Wollstonecraft’s work on the rights and education of women in the society.
According to Rousseau, women are regarded as being a weak sex and that they are incapable of having an effective reasoning. His view on the state of relationship between women and men is based on the idea that men are naturally strong in comparison to women; therefore, men are independent. However, the only reason why men depend on women is because of the desire they have for them. On the other hand, women need as well as desire men. As such, the major responsibility for women is to be subservient to their men. This explains why he was advocating education in dependency in Emile. He is of the opinion that men’s education should not match that of women. Precisely, education of women should not be aimed at theoretical issues as for the case of men, based on the assertion that women’s minds are not suited to such kind of thinking like men. As such, he asserted that, women should only be educated in a manner that will be helpful for them in fulfilling or rather performing their natural roles as wives, (Fraser, 1999, pp. 803-0).
Notably, most the work of Rousseau is based on his experience and encounter with women. This became the basis of his claim that man was created good and happy by nature, but he is made measurable by being corrupted by the society. Therefore, almost all his theories on education emerge from his attempt to maintain the pure state of nature. This explains the reason why he advocated for negative education for a male child, where he could discover by himself what nature expects of him. However, during the adulthood stage, direct instruction or positive education would do better for him as studies during this period would mainly based on his natural curiosity, (John & Maaike, 1994, pp. 125-0) Moreover, he pointed out that there was need to base the teachings on practical applications. However, to further illustrate how Rousseau considered women to be a weak sex in the society, he opposed the negative education concept to be applied to women. This because he considered the roles of women to be limited to being a mother and a wife; hence, there is no need to let her establish herself as her destiny had already been determined by nature. As mentioned early, education for women according him should be dependent. Precisely, education for women should be designed according to their relationship with men. For instance, they should be taught to be subjective to men as they are not free to come up with their opinions above those of men’s.
On the other hand, the perception of women as far as their rights and education in the society from Wollstonecraft’s point of view is quite different from Rousseau. Undeniably, most of her ideas in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, stems from the ideas of Rousseau in his Emile book. According to Wollstonecraft, women are being oppressed due to lack of education. This explains why her work was mainly aimed at promoting equality for women in education. Notably, her view was based on the argument that women and men should be equal in all the basic facets of life; for instance, loyalty in marriage, (Jacobs, 2001, pp. 131-7).As a matter of fact, she openly attacked Rousseau on his negative implications of women as well as their responsibilities within the society. Wollstonecraft does not only differ with Rousseau, but also with all other philosophers who portrays women as being the weaker sex in the society.
According Wollstonecraft, the dependency theory which was advocated for by Rousseau should not be accepted. In her opinion, women should be intelligent based on their rights. They should not make assumptions that their husbands would be intelligent, (Craciun, 2002, pp. 123-7). However, she agreed that the roles of women as mothers as well as wives should be maintained, but they should not be contradicted with their education. Additionally, she asserted that rationality was the basis of the rights of human as it is the capability of grasping the truth; hence the knowhow of what is wrong and right. Therefore, women should not be considered as being irrational creatures as they have been portrayed by Rousseau. According to her, if girls are given encouragement beginning form their early ages to develop their minds, they would prove to be rational just like for the case of men; thus, they should be accorded equal chances like boys as far as training and education is concerned. Hence, just like the men, women have the potential of joining various professions and have careers. This is why she was advocating for similar education for boys and girls. Finally, Wollstonecraft not only fought for equality of women in education, but also advocated women’s rights before the law by proposing for equal representation in parliament, (Jacobs, 2001, pp. 141-5).
In conclusion, despite of the above mentioned differences between Wollstonecraft and Rousseau regarding the rights and education of women in the society, both of them agrees or rather have similar opinions concerning this issues. Indeed, they had a lot in common with the only exception being the position of women in the society. Firstly, they both agree that the role of women in the society is to take care of the family. Secondly, they both also confirm that women are considered as being a weaker sex in the society. However, Wollstonecraft argues that, they can able to perform duties that men perform if they are given equal opportunities in education as well as before the law regarding their rights, (Craciun, 2002, pp. 131-5). Lastly, they both agreed that women have special talents as compared to men.
Works Cited
Craciun, C. A Routledge Literary Sourcebook on Mary Wollstonecraft’s “A Vindication of the
Rights of Women”. London: Routledge, 2002.
Fraser, Arvonne S. Becoming Human: The Origins and Development of Women’s Human Rights.
“Human Rights Quarterly”. Vol. 21, No. 4, 1999, pp. 853-906.
Jacobs, D. Her own woman: The life of Mary Wollstonecraft. New York: Simon & Schuster,
2001.
John Darling & Maaike Pijekamp. Rousseau on the Education, Domination and Violation of Women. “British Journal of Education Studies”. Vol. 42, No. 2, 1994, pp. 115-132.
