A Vindication of the Rights of Women

First published in 1792, this treatise argues that women are rational beings whose apparent weakness comes from an education in ornament, dependence, and the wish to please. Wollstonecraft answers writers who treat girls as creatures of feeling, especially Rousseau's picture of Sophie, and she calls for national day schools in which the sexes learn together. Marriage, she says, should be companionship between equals, not a property arrangement that keeps wives childish. The book is a work of political and moral philosophy about education and civic standing, not a novel and not a memoir.

Bound in black and red image blocked white cloth. Black endleaves. Red slipcase.