A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects

Wollstonecraft reflects on the fact that no matter how much learning and education a person might acquire, they will still be guided in certain ways by “instantaneous associations” (121) and “first impressions” (122)—essentially by instinct and ignorance, rather than by understanding. Wollstonecraft says that it is the purpose of education to “give variety and contrast to his associations” (122) so that a person’s judgment and understanding of the world is no longer based upon ignorance. However, because women have so little access to education, these false impressions and ideas of the world—according to Wollstonecraft—have “a more baneful effect on the female than the male character” (122), such that “females […] have not sufficient strength of mind to efface the superinductions of art that have smothered nature” (122). As a result, women do not question their perceived purpose in life—to please and attract men—nor do they attempt to acquire other or additional attributes to those forced upon them: “beauty and delicacy” (122).

One major effect of having such an unquestioning nature, Wollstonecraft says, is the type of men who women often fall in love with and thus seek to make their husbands. When women are only educated to acquire and understand “superficial accomplishments” (124), then they will only be drawn to men who similarly illustrate superficial accomplishments, such as society’s “rake” (124).