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7+ UNIVERSIDAD DE JAÉN Centro de Estudios de Postgrado Master’s Dissertation/ Trabajo Fin de Máster MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT: THE OTHER FACE OF THE ENLIGHTENED PERIOD Student: Leiva Aguilera, Ana María Tutor: Dr. María de la Cinta Zunino Garrido Dpt.: English Philology Centro de Estudios de Postgrado July, 2016 CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................... 1 RESUMEN ............................................................................................................................. 1 KEY WORDS......................................................................................................................... 2 PALABRAS CLAVE ............................................................................................................. 2 1.-GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE RESEARCH ..................................................... 2 2.- JUSTIFICATION .............................................................................................................. 3 3.- THEORETICAL FOUNDATION .................................................................................... 4 4.- ANTECEDENTS .............................................................................................................. 6 5.-MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT, THE OTHER FACE OF THE ENLIGHTENED PERIOD .................................................................................................................................. 8 5.1.-Introduction to the author ............................................................................................ 8 5.2.- A Vindication of the Rights of Men: A rational revision of tradition ...................... 10 5.3.- A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: A critique to artificiality ........................... 15 5.4.-Critique to prejudices ................................................................................................. 19 5.5.-Reason and virtue as processes of emancipation in women ...................................... 22 5.6.-Education as a tool of amendment ............................................................................. 30 5.7.-Woman as a sexual object ......................................................................................... 35 6.-NEOFEMINISM AS AN ENLIGHTENED HERITAGE ............................................... 43 7.-CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................ 45 REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................... 47 ANNEX I: CONCEPTUAL MAPS ..................................................................................... 51 ANNEX II: FROM `VINDICATIONS´ TO HER CONFLICTIVE ADMIRATION AND INDIGNATION TOWARDS ROUSSEAU ......................................................................... 67 ABSTRACT In this dissertation we would like to show that feminism had some of its roots in the Enlightened Period, and that the so called ‘coherent Enlightenment’ (the one which vindicates for the rights of woman) played a decisive role in the emergence of the feminist ideas which would eventually thrive at the dawn of the twentieth century. Even though in the times of the French Revolution the call for freedom and equality did not translate into a full recognition of the rights of women, it did propitiate that authors such as Mary Wollstonecraft established the basis for future feminist movements, which would lead to a series of emancipation processes. Hence, we consider it suitable in this essay to examine what could be deemed an Enlightened protofeminism as a critical-feminist line of thought. Moreover, we will unveil this other side of the Enlightenment (empowered basically by women) which did also exist. It will be our purpose to bring to light those voices that the Enlightened period rejected to illuminate. That is the reason why we aim to analyse works such as Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), which, despite the distance in time, may still be regarded as a key referent in the universalization of education conceived as the only possible basis for the attainment of equality of rights and freedoms in a genuine global world. RESUMEN En esta investigación queremos mostrar que el feminismo tiene su nacimiento en la Ilustración y que la que podríamos denominar “Ilustración coherente” (la que reivindica los derechos de la mujer) jugó un papel determinante en el surgimiento de las ideas feministas que finalmente florecerían a principios del siglo XX, ya que, aunque en tiempos de la Revolución Francesa esto no se tradujera en un reconocimiento de los derechos de las mujeres, sí que propició que autoras como Mary Wollstonecraft sentaran las bases para que, más adelante, los movimientos feministas iniciaran los procesos de emancipación. De ahí que consideremos adecuado hablar de un protofeminismo ilustrado como un pensamiento crítico- feminista de esta otra Ilustración que también existió. Queremos sacar a la luz aquellas voces que la Ilustración no quiso iluminar. Nos planteamos analizar obras como A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) de Wollstonecraft, que, a pesar de la distancia temporal, pueden seguir siendo referente en la universalización de la educación, como el único camino en la consecución de igualdad de derechos y libertades en un mundo plenamente global. 1 KEY WORDS Mary Wollstonecraft, feminism, Enlightenment, vindications, patriarchy, sex, gender, public vs private, reason, equality, freedom, prejudices, subjection, education, power relationships, culture, ideology, suffragist movement, Poullain de la Barre, Olympe de Gouges, Rousseau, J.S. Mill, Simone de Beauvoir, Betty Friedan, Kate Millet. PALABRAS CLAVE Mary Wollstonecraft, feminismo, Ilustración, vindicaciones, patriarcado, sexo, género, público/privado, razón, igualdad, libertad, prejuicios, sumisión, educación, relaciones de poder, cultura, ideología, sufragismo, Poullain de la Barre, Olympe de Gouges, Rousseau, J. S. Mill, Simone de Beavoir, Betty Friedan, Kate Millet, 1.-GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE RESEARCH “Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you” (Genesis 3:16) I have chosen the figure of Mary Wollstonecraft as a referent, inasmuch as she is considered the first European author who publishes a systemized essay on the relegated situation of women and explicitly proposes the recognition of their rights. Her personal and professional life clearly reflects women’s difficulties in the hostile world they live in, as well as her intention to modify both the legislation of the time and a hard daily life reality. What had been considered as innate qualities of women (household and children care, giving birth) until then, turned out to be the effect of a kind of education they (women) were subjected to. This notion is what we find reflected in Wollstonecraft, who departs from Nativist ideas based on the notion that women were born to devote themselves to motherhood, husband’s care and children’s bearing. Wollstonecraft’s criticism anticipates the ideology defended by Simone de Beauvoir1: woman is not born, but rather becomes, she is made out of the patriarchal education she is exposed to and, subsequently, determined by a lack of expectations in life. These ideas conform what we could term a kind of proto-feminism, whose goals comprise retaking, assuming and overcoming the notions developed during the Enlightened period 1 Le Deuxième Sexe (1949) where, just like Wollstonecraft, she will affirm that woman has been understood as a cultural product, socially constructed under the domains of patriarchy. 2 which fostered freedom, equality and fraternity, and which served as foundations for the 18th century revolutionary vindications. Notwithstanding, and as is widely known, such vindications excluded the feminine collective. That is why we are interested in Wollstonecraft’s works, because she understands that it is possible to foster awareness on the need to acquire gender equality by means of including women within the civic sphere. Our aim will consist on pointing out the contradictions of the Enlightened thought, which failed to be coherent with its own egalitarian pronouncements, especially with those concerning the principles of equality, fraternity and freedom for all human beings, with the exception of women. The division between the public and the private spheres, as well as the legitimization of the exclusion of woman, led to the necessity of an Enlightened revelry which will be the object of our study: the analysis of the ambiguity in Wollstonecraft’s works, by relying on some sections such as her rational revision of tradition in A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790) 2, her critique to artificiality or prejudices, at the same time she bases herself on education, reason and virtue as processes to end up with the idea of woman as a mere sexual and domestic object, as it is shown in 3A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). The methodology we are going to follow consists in making a rereading of the Enlightenment from a feminist point of view. We will help ourselves from reason as a critical weapon against the subjection of women. We will polemicize on female education mainly reading Wollstonecraft’s works and analysing their relation to Rousseau’s ideas. We will tackle some of the antecedents of liberal feminism with the analysis of some of the ideas exposed in Rights of Woman (1792)