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

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. Who was Mary Wollstonecraft? In what time period did she live? What social and political philosophies are associated with her?

Teaching Suggestion: If your students have little background knowledge about Wollstonecraft, you might offer them the first two resources below before they attempt this prompt. If they are familiar with her and her work, you might ask them for preliminary answers to the prompt, then have them refine their answers once they have had a chance to review the links below or similar resources.

• This article from Oxford Learning Link includes an overview of Wollstonecraft’s life and philosophy.
• This 4-minute video from Biography shares background information on Wollstonecraft (Content Note: mentions attempted self-harm).

2. What common attitudes toward women and their role in society existed in England in the late 1700s? How did other aspects of identity—like class, race, and ethnicity–intersect with people’s understanding of womanhood?

Teaching Suggestion: Students are likely to have a fairly solid understanding of attitudes toward women in Wollstonecraft’s day. While considering the nuanced information available in the resources below may help them revise their initial answers and demonstrate increased understanding, it may also be beneficial to discuss how attitudes toward women have evolved over time and why. This could also serve as a follow-up conversation post-reading.

• These exhibition notes from a National Portrait Gallery exhibition on the 18th century “Bluestockings” offer insight into the social climate intellectual women faced during Wollstonecraft’s time.
• This article discusses the impact of the Industrial Revolution on British women.
• This interactive activity hosted by the University of Michigan allows students to assume the role of an 18th century Englishwoman.
• This chapter from Health and Welfare During Industrialization explores various aspects of women’s status during Wollstonecraft’s time. (Due to length and complexity, this is suggested as a teacher-facing resource.)

Short Activity

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is concerned with limitations commonly placed on women in Wollstonecraft’s time. In this activity, you will create a timeline that conveys where Wollstonecraft’s work falls chronologically relative to key milestones in the fight for women’s rights.

• Begin your timeline in 1553, with the reign of Mary Tudor.
• Include important political, social, philosophical, and historical milestones related to women’s rights.
• Include the 1792 publication of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
• End your timeline in 1928, with the Equal Franchise Act in the United States.

Teaching Suggestion: This activity is intended to give students a sense of the historical development of the feminist ideals Wollstonecraft promotes in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and lay groundwork for the summative activity at the unit’s end. If you would like your students to explore the development of other strains of philosophy related to Wollstonecraft’s work—Jacobinism, Social Contract Theory, and so on—you might amend the assignment overview to read, “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was written during a time of political and social change. In this activity, you will create a timeline that conveys how historical events and developments in philosophy relate to Wollstonecraft’s work.” Then, you can add bullet points to the assignment criteria detailing which additional philosophies and historical events they are to track on their timelines. The resources listed below might be offered to students who have particular difficulty conducting independent research, but students may develop a wider and richer variety of responses to this activity through finding their own sources. After students finish their work, you might invite them to discuss similarities and differences among timelines.

• This overview lists key milestones in British women’s rights from 1135-1995.
• This timeline offers insights into how legal developments have impacted British women from 1215 onward.
• This article explores the historical development of feminist philosophy.
• This essay discusses art and its depiction of changes in the social expectations of women in the 1600s.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students with limited vision may not be able to complete this assignment as written; a reasonable alternative might be for these students to construct their responses as chronologically ordered bulleted lists. Students who struggle with spatial reasoning may have difficulty creating a timeline on paper and may find it easier to use an online tool like this one.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the text.

How would you define the term “blind obedience,” and why is it potentially problematic? Can you recall a time in your life, or in history, in which obedience was beneficial or harmful? What role do the expectations of authority figures play in our lives and in society in general?   

Teaching Suggestion: Wollstonecraft uses the term “blind obedience” throughout A Vindication of the Rights of Woman to describe societal expectations of the role of women during the 1700s. This prompt is intended to connect students personally with the material and to provoke thought about their own understanding of the term. If students choose to respond with a personal example, rather than an example from history, they may wish to do so privately in a journal without the expectation of sharing their work aloud.