Mary Wollstonecraft’s Femininity and Rationality: A Critical Assessment

The topic of self-representation in early nineteenth-century British women writers is discussed in this essay. I examine how women were made to be subordinated by a construct of femininity that prevented them from becoming subjects capable of logical thought. I show how Mary Wollstonecraft, via her writings such as A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, created a forum for the discussion of women’s rights and the effect this had on a patriarchal society. I talk about the patriarchal gender politics that exclude women due to their low levels of education. I contend that Wollstonecraft overturned the distinctions between constructs of masculinity and femininity as one of the forerunners of early proto feminist philosophy. The categories “masculine” and “feminine Romanticism,” which separate the author’s biological sex from the ideological construction of gender were developed by Anne Mellor. I agree with Mellor’s thesis for a gendered Romanticism, which explains the impact of gender when examining early nineteenth-century women’s work. I go over how the peculiarities of the society they live in undermine Wollstonecraft’s plea for gender equality. In order to escape the confines of femininity and present themselves as rational, thinking people, I also look at how women of this age portrayed themselves in literature.