Wollstonecraft's Introduction to "Vindication of the Rights of Women"

Wollstonecraft's Introduction to her "Vindication on the Rights of Women" is quite an interesting text as Wollstonecraft's opinion and criticism of her own gender is clearly apparent and it is almost as if her Vindication is meant to not only change the way men think and write about women, but to change the way in which women think about themselves. For this reason, Wollstonecraft chooses to critique the education of women. While it is obvious Wollstonecraft is criticizing the male interpretation of womanhood in literature and history, Wollstonecraft is also criticizing the way in which women absorb and utilize, in a sense, their education. She claims that her contemporaries are anxious only to "inspire love" while they should use their abilities and "virtues" to "exact respect" (Wollstonecraft, 373). Her use of the word "virtue" here is extremely significant because it alludes to the chastity and virtue that men force upon women. For men, women are virtuous when they are virgins and this virginity and male attention, in a way, according to Wollstonecraft brainwashes women into failing to participate in society. For Wollstonecraft, they virtue is their intellect and the potential to become equal members of the human race versus objectified dolls. Using this pun, in a sense, enables Wollstonecraft to create her own female interpretation of female goodness to contrast with the male interpretation of what female goodness is.