Wollstonecraft's views on the state of women in the Romantic period are remarkably similar to the modern feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir's. Beauvaoir argues that relationship between men and women is not one of equal and opposite diodes, but one of a diode subjugating the other. The lesser diode is seen not as the true opposite of the dominant one, but as the absence of the qualities that make the dominant diode dominant. Specifically, Beauvoir says that femininity is the lack of the qualities that make mascuilinity dominant.
Wollstonecraft similarly argues that women are missing something that men possess, namely a full education. It is this absence, Wollstonecraft believes, that holds women in a state equivalent to that of children in the eyes of the men who command society. Wollstonecraft wishes women to receive an education equal to that of men so as to make up some of the deficit she sees in gender relations; the physiological differences she seems willing to accept. Wollstonecraft hopes that through intellectual stimulation, women will cease being seen as "non-men" and begin to be viewed as human beings and companions to men rather than just wives.
Wollstonecraft similarly argues that women are missing something that men possess, namely a full education. It is this absence, Wollstonecraft believes, that holds women in a state equivalent to that of children in the eyes of the men who command society. Wollstonecraft wishes women to receive an education equal to that of men so as to make up some of the deficit she sees in gender relations; the physiological differences she seems willing to accept. Wollstonecraft hopes that through intellectual stimulation, women will cease being seen as "non-men" and begin to be viewed as human beings and companions to men rather than just wives.
Wollstonecraft also mentions that women are missing the legal abilities to experience the world that men possess, which is an integral part of "education," though it's not formal. She explains that society's view of women needs to change, and that "till society be differently constituted, much cannot be expected from education," even for women (381). She goes on to explain that "the most perfect education, in my opinion, is such an exercise of the understanding as is best calculated to strengthen the body and form the heart...to enable the individual to attain such habits of virtue as will render it independent" (381). So, I think she does favor education for women, but qualifies her definition of "education" making it also experience based and holistic, in addition to formal.
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