It seems like it has been so long since I read this book somehow. I don’t quite remember much in detail.. But as I was reading through Rights of Woman, Wollstonecraft was “viewing [women] as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone” Well.. it is true how many women were mistreated and seem to have been oppressed by men/society decades ago. Years have passed and so many things have changed. But there still are people who think and claim the rights of women as Wollstonecraft did.
I personally think that women go get the same education as men do but it is the expectations that change their behavior. Yes, “men and women must be educated, in a great degree, by the opinions and manners of the society they live in”. But even when women are equally educated as men, they still tend to rely on men.
To think of this other way around, men still want to be seen like a ‘man’, more masculine because the society expects/ pressures men to change this way. Not all men are born masculine but many women prefer men who are powerful. The society expects men to be intelligent, wealthy, masculine, less emotional… and much more. It is not only women who are oppressed to have beauty or to be submissive.
Educated women know how to stand up for themselves and knows how to reason. However, it is the balance that men and women creates when they are together. Neither men nor women are able to be fully independent alone.
Vindication of Rights of Woman also reminds me of one of the book from Hillary Clinton. How she became who she is today as one of the most influential women in history. I do not know direct quotes because it was translated into Korean, but she was emphasizing how education is one of the fastest way to be treated as equal among men. As Wollstonecraft and Hillary Clinton emphasize, education takes a great role for women. However, all I want to say is that femininity and masculinity should both be balanced rather than trying to be superior over one another.