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A Vindication of the Rights of Woman Study Guide

by Mary Wollstonecraft

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman study guide contains a biography of Mary Wollstonecraft, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is a treatise on overcoming the ways in which women in her time are oppressed and denied their potential in society, with concomitant problems for their households and society as a whole. The dedication is to Charles M. Talleyrand-Périgord, the late bishop of Autun whose views on female education were distasteful to Wollstonecraft. The introduction sets out her view that neglect of girls’ education is largely to blame for the condition of adult women. They are treated as subordinate beings who care only about being attractive, elegant, and meek, they buy into this oppression, and they do not have the tools to vindicate their fundamental rights or the awareness that they are in such…

Read the full A Vindication of the Rights of Woman Summary

• A Vindication of the Rights of Woman Summary
• About A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
• Character List
• Glossary of Terms
• Major Themes
• Quotes and Analysis
• Summary and Analysis of Front Matter and Introduction
• Summary and Analysis of Chapter I: The Rights and Involved Duties of Mankind Considered
• Summary and Analysis of Chapter II: The Prevailing Opinion of a Sexual Character Discussed
• Summary and Analysis of Chapter III: The Same Subject Continued
• Summary and Analysis of Chapter IV: Observations on the State of Degradation to Which Woman Is Reduced by Various Causes
• Summary and Analysis of Chapter V: Animadversions on Some Writers Who Have Rendered Women Objects of Pity, Bordering on Contempt
• Summary and Analysis of Chapters VI and VII: The Effect Which an Early Association of Ideas Has upon the Character; Modesty--Comprehensively Considered, and Not as a Sexual Virtue
• Summary and Analysis of Chapters VIII and IX: Morality Undermined by Sexual Notions of the Importance of a Good Reputation; Of the Pernicious Effects Which Arise from the Unnatural Distinctions Established in Society
• Summary and Analysis of Chapters X and XI: Parental Affection; Duty to Parents
• Summary and Analysis of Chapter XII: On National Education
• Summary and Analysis of 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
• William Godwin
• Related Links on A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
• Suggested Essay Questions
• Test Yourself! - Quiz 1
• Test Yourself! - Quiz 2
• Test Yourself! - Quiz 3
• Test Yourself! - Quiz 4
• Author of ClassicNote and Sources

• A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: Major Themes
• A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: Essays
• A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: E-Text
• A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: Questions
• A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: Purchase the Novel and Related Material
• Mary Wollstonecraft: Biography