A Vindication of the Rights of Woman | Page 8

thus opened in society, what is to preserve private
virtue, the only security of public freedom and universal happiness?
Let there be then no coercion ESTABLISHED in society, and the
common law of gravity prevailing, the sexes will fall into their proper
places. And, now that more equitable laws are forming your citizens,
marriage may become more sacred; your young men may choose wives
from motives of affection, and your maidens allow love to root out
vanity.
The father of a family will not then weaken his constitution and debase
his sentiments, by visiting the harlot, nor forget, in obeying the call of
appetite, the purpose for which it was implanted; and the mother will
not neglect her children to practise the arts of coquetry, when sense and
modesty secure her the friendship of her husband.
But, till men become attentive to the duty of a father, it is vain to
expect women to spend that time in their nursery which they, "wise in

their generation," choose to spend at their glass; for this exertion of
cunning is only an instinct of nature to enable them to obtain indirectly
a little of that power of which they are unjustly denied a share; for, if
women are not permitted to enjoy legitimate rights, they will render
both men and themselves vicious, to obtain illicit privileges.
I wish, sir, to set some investigations of this kind afloat in France; and
should they lead to a confirmation of my principles, when your
constitution is revised, the rights of woman may be respected, if it be
fully proved that reason calls for this respect, and loudly demands
JUSTICE for one half of the human race.
I am, sir,
Yours respectfully,
M. W.
INTRODUCTION.
After considering the historic page, and viewing the living world with
anxious solicitude, the most melancholy emotions of sorrowful
indignation have depressed my spirits, and I have sighed when obliged
to confess, that either nature has made a great difference between man
and man, or that the civilization, which has hitherto taken place in the
world, has been very partial. I have turned over various books written
on the subject of education, and patiently observed the conduct of
parents and the management of schools; but what has been the result? a
profound conviction, that the neglected education of my fellow
creatures is the grand source of the misery I deplore; and that women in
particular, are rendered weak and wretched by a variety of concurring
causes, originating from one hasty conclusion. The conduct and
manners of women, in fact, evidently prove, that their minds are not in
a healthy state; for, like the flowers that 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. One cause of this barren blooming I attribute to a false system
of education, gathered from the books written on this subject by men,
who, considering females rather as women than human creatures, have
been more anxious to make them alluring mistresses than rational
wives; and the understanding of the sex has been so bubbled by this
specious homage, that the civilized women of the present century, with

a few exceptions, are only anxious to inspire love, when they ought to
cherish a nobler ambition, and by their abilities and virtues exact
respect.
In a treatise, therefore, on female rights and manners, the works which
have been particularly written for their improvement must not be
overlooked; especially when it is asserted, in direct terms, that the
minds of women are enfeebled by false refinement; that the books of
instruction, written by men of genius, have had the same tendency as
more frivolous productions; and that, in the true style of
Mahometanism, they are only considered as females, and not as a part
of the human species, when improvable reason is allowed to be the
dignified distinction, which raises men above the brute creation, and
puts a natural sceptre in a feeble hand.
Yet, because I am a woman, I would not lead my readers to suppose,
that I mean violently to agitate the contested question respecting the
equality and inferiority of the sex; but as the subject lies in my way,
and I cannot pass it over without subjecting the main tendency of my
reasoning to misconstruction, I shall stop a moment to deliver, in a few
words, my opinion. In the government of the physical world, it is
observable that the female, in general, is inferior to the male. The male
pursues, the female yields--this is the law of nature; and it does not
appear to be suspended or abrogated in favour of woman. This physical