question 1

Wollstonecraft, as a liberal minded woman, can not agree with Rousseau’s perception that the world was perfect at the beginning, because it would give legitimacy to the historical discrimination that placed woman below men. Instead, she argued that this perfection was slowly reached through each succeeding generation’s achievement of reason. In order for the continuation of this effort towards perfection, Wollstonecraft believed it necessary for women to be educated, which offers an interesting critique of Rousseau’s own philosophical understanding that woman were incapable of reason. Wollstonecraft’s argument is interesting in that she recognizes the conservative notion of home being the place for women, but draws on the importance of woman’s roles in the domestic to affect the outer social territory. The education of woman, Wollstonecraft upholds, will ultimately lead to a unique solidarity between husband and wife, which will lead to a better domestic environment, and a step towards the perfection in the social and religious realms that she mentions. So if women’s education is of quality and thus will lead to change, Wollstonecraft refutes Rousseau’s testimony that woman are reason-less, and like men are also capable of being full citizens.