Wollstonecraft: A key feminist response to Enlightenment thought

Description

This talk examines Mary Wollstonecraft’s response to Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s influential views on women, particularly as expressed in Émile, and her arguments in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) and related writings. Rousseau claimed that women were naturally suited to dependence and domesticity, requiring only a limited education designed to please and serve men. Wollstonecraft directly challenges this position by insisting that women, like men, possess the capacity for reason and moral judgment, and therefore deserve an education that cultivates their intellectual and civic potential.

The presentation situates Wollstonecraft within the wider Enlightenment debates about reason, nature, and education, showing how she exposes the contradictions in a philosophy that celebrates liberty while denying it to half the population. For Wollstonecraft, women’s apparent weakness or irrationality is not natural but socially produced: it results from an education that trains them to be ornamental, submissive, and emotionally dependent rather than rational and self-governing. She argues that such training damages both women and society, producing unequal marriages, poor parenting, and fragile moral character. By reframing women as rational agents rather than decorative companions, Wollstonecraft redefines virtue as a shared human quality rather than a gendered one. The talk concludes by considering the political implications of her argument: education is not merely a private matter but a foundation for equality, citizenship, and social reform. In challenging Rousseau, Wollstonecraft lays the groundwork for modern feminist philosophy and offers a powerful critique of any system that uses “nature” to justify injustice.
V2, V3, K3, A2: Great Thinkers Series
Learning and Teaching

Period	28 Jan 2026
Held at	University of Liverpool, United Kingdom