Throughout the late eighteenth century, Mary Wollstonecraft first handedly witnessed the injustices women endured secondary to educational inequalities. Wollstonecraft grew up in an abusive environment and quickly came to recognize the roles of power, status, and wealth in the limitation of women’s rights. During this period, women sought marriage simply because they did not know how else to thrive or exist within society; women pursued domestic affairs because they lacked the resources and support necessary to pursue educational opportunities. Perceived as naturally inferior to men, philosophers, primarily male, argued that women devoid the ability to attain reason. Inspired by the French Revolution, Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in riposte to Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the French Revolution. In this early work of feminist philosophy, Wollstonecraft challenges the idea that women exist solely to please men and emphasizes the importance of educational equality in strengthening the body and mind. Targeting middle class women, Wollstonecraft introduces new ideas pertaining to women’s rights and reintroduces arguments from an array of philosophers that preceded her. Frustrated that women had become domestic slaves, Wollstonecraft argues that women ought to receive the same quality of education as men to become active participants in society; she believes that equal access to education produces a just society. 

 

          Wollstonecraft reasoned that without the knowledge and skills acquired through a proper education, women resort to appease men through beautification. In A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Wollstonecraft analyzes the mannerisms of women and contends that their minds occupy an unhealthy state. Through figurative language, Wollstonecraft compares the lives of women to flowers: “for, like the flowers which are planted in too rich a soil, strength and usefulness are sacrificed to beauty; and the flaunting leaves, after having pleased a fastidious eye, fade, disregarded on the stalk, long before the season when they ought to have arrived at maturity.” Attributed to a corrupt educational system, Wollstonecraft asserts that women value beauty over reason and virtue. Ignorant to educational inequalities, women learn to merit superficial constituents, such as appearance and physique, to please their male companions. Before women reach maturity, beauty subsides, leaving them weak and without use; this unhealthy state of mind trickles down from mother to daughter, for a mother can not raise a daughter of the opposite state. Moreover, Wollstonecraft challenges the perception that women exist solely to please men. She believes that through education, women can shed their weak tendencies and come to better understand their role in society. Wollstonecraft encourages women to cultivate lifelong qualities, such as strength and usefulness, to avoid loss of character. Physical beauty eventually evanesces, while the knowledge and skills acquired through education flourish indefinitely. 

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          Similarly to Wollstonecraft, Olympe de Gouges, a French playwright and activist, argued that educational inequalities enhance male oppression. In addition to pleasing men with their beauty, women heavily relied on men to cultivate their happiness. In 1789, during the midst of the French Revolution, France's National Constituent Assembly released the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen to proclaim universal human rights; the National Assembly published the proclamation to promote liberty, property, and security for all French citizens. Concerned with the welfare of women, Gouges argued that the proclamation failed to incorporate the inclusion of women's rights. In addition, she believed the proclamation contradicted the ideals of the French Revolution. Ceasing to incorporate women and citizens of color, she maintained that the proclamation egocentrically targeted free, white males. In response to the proclamation, Gouges published the Declaration of Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen in 1791. In Article IV of Declaration of Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen, Gouges writes, “freedom and justice consist in returning anything that belongs to someone else to them; thus the exercise of the natural rights of woman has no limits other than those which the endless tyranny of man opposes to them; these limits must be reformed according to the laws of reason and nature.” Similarly to Wollstonecraft, Gouges blames the weak-minded nature of women on the absence of education equalities and male oppression. Both philosophers suggest that society undermines women to measure up to men’s reasonable, virtuous nature because they have not had the opportunity to prove their own worth. In addition, both authors elicit that the corruption imposed upon women contributes to the problems that hinder societal growth. 

 

          Dissimilar to Wollstonecraft and Gouges, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, an influential philosopher during the French Revolution, believed that women existed solely to please men; therefore, he argued, women should attain the necessary instruction to become better companions to men. Despite the limitations placed on women's dignity, he emphasized the importance of pursuing one’s natural tendencies to produce a more just individual. Because women were primarily concerned with fulfilling their roles as wives and mothers, Rousseau believed that they did not need to undergo the same quality of education as men. In Emile, or On Education, a piece on the nature of education, Rousseau portrays women as submissive, weak individuals. In accounting for the education that women shall receive, he writes, "women’s entire education should be planned in relation to men. To please men, to be useful to them, to win their love and respect, to raise them as children, care for them; as adults, counsel and console them, make their lives sweet and pleasant: these are women’s duties in all ages and these are what they should be taught from childhood on." Throughout the text, Rousseau highlights that although women need and desire men, men do not need women, but only desire them. Rousseau acknowledges that women have talents men do not occupy, but he merely desires to create dependent, domestic creatures; a woman’s purpose, from his perspective, involves subjectivity to her husband’s will. These beliefs and philosophies restrict women from becoming active members of society. Women of delicate, gentle natures submit themselves to male opinion and preference. 

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          In A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Wollstonecraft outlines an ideal educational system for both men and women. Unlike Rousseau, Wollstonecraft believed that both men and women should undergo education together and partake in the same lessons; she contended that independence and understanding led to just, active members of society. In regards to this concept, Wollstonecraft suggests, “the most perfect education… is such an exercise of the understanding as is best calculated to strengthen the body and form the heart. Or, in other words, to enable the individual to attain such habits of virtue as will render it independent.” This quote demonstrates the importance in giving women space to develop reason and virtue for themselves; educational opportunities distant women from male oppression, and male dependence. Through the nurturing of education, women develop self-preservation skills, form their own perspectives, and learn to navigate societal pressures. To do this, Wollstonecraft urges young women to run wild, and participate in the activities that their male companions partake in. Without a proper education “[women] will stop the progress of knowledge and virtue; for truth must be common to all.” In other words, women stop the pursuit of skills that develop whole, just societal beings. Without knowledge and virtue, women struggle to co-operate within society. Through education, women become equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to suit adequate daughters, sisters, friends, wives, and mothers. Educational rights essentially lead to the understanding of reason, virtue, and one’s worth. 

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          Similarly to Wollstonecraft, Marie de Gournay contended that women can measure up to great rank when provided with serviceable opportunities and resources. Gournay, a self-taught woman, utilized her voice to tackle some of the popular opinions that arose in the context of sixteenth and seventeenth century France. In particular, Gournay critiqued the inequality imposed upon women and advocated for equal access to education. In her piece, Equality Between Men and Women (1622), Gournay argues, “if the ladies arrive less frequently to the heights of excellence than do the gentlemen, it is because of this lack of good education...women should not permit this to weaken their belief that they can achieve anything.” Gournay insinuates that the lack of educational opportunities provided to women fuels the growing divide between the sexes. She believes that providing women access to education and encouraging them to pursue their aspirations enhances their ability to fulfill their potential. Enduring the consequences of preconceived notions and cultural stigmas, enacted by their male superiors, does not produce just women. For example, if all one hears throughout their lifetime is that they lack value, it becomes difficult to question whether or not that holds truth. Men, she believes, hold women back and their ability to persevere. Although credited as ahead of her time, Wollstonecraft brought light to many of the arguments that women of the past, such as Gournay, advocated for. 

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          One may argue that educated women will have less power over men. Furthermore, they may argue, from a woman's perspective, that equal access to education will strip them of their domestic, gentle nature that appeals to men. Although this may grabble truth, as previously discussed, women do not exist solely to satisfy the desires of men. Alluding to Rousseau, Wollstonecraft writes, “‘educate women like men,’ says Rousseau, ‘and the more they resemble our sex the less power will they have over us.’ This is the very point I aim at. I do not wish them to have power over men; but over themselves.” Wollstonecraft argues that other philosophers, predominantly male, miss the point in providing women with equal access to education. Women do not seek education to maintain power over their male companions; they seek education to better themselves and their quality of life. To further qualify the issue, Wollstonecraft asserts, “the being who patiently endures injustice, and silently bears insults, will soon become unjust, or unable to discern right from wrong.” The injustices imposed through male oppression and self-doubt hinder women’s abilities to faultlessly contribute to the welfare of society. Education exists as a basic human right, and the longer women are denied this right, the more unjust they shall become. 

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          To conclude, the production of well-rounded societal participants through educational equalities breeds a more just society. Notably, societal expectations bequeath from generation to generation; the corruption that resides within educational systems ceaselessly thrives because individuals, predominantly male, continue to distinguish the “value” they hold. In rebuttal to the works of male philosophers, such as Rousseau who impeded women empowerment and placed limitations on understanding, Wollstonecraft and her female counterparts emphasized the importance of independence and liberation through education. Unfortunately, there is not a blueprint for cultivating just members of society. However, with the help of knowledge and skills acquired through equal access to education, individuals can metamorphose into the best version of themselves. In her text, Wollstonecraft argues that the implementation of her ideas can only be beneficial because women do not have much to lose. With equal access to education, women can display their abilities and prove that they are more than empty corpses.