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A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects
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Chapters 6-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary: “The Effect Which an Early Association of Ideas Has upon the Character.”
Wollstonecraft reflects on the fact that no matter how much learning and education a person might acquire, they will still be guided in certain ways by “instantaneous associations” (121) and “first impressions” (122)—essentially by instinct and ignorance, rather than by understanding. Wollstonecraft says that it is the purpose of education to “give variety and contrast to his associations” (122) so that a person’s judgment and understanding of the world is no longer based upon ignorance. However, because women have so little access to education, these false impressions and ideas of the world—according to Wollstonecraft—have “a more baneful effect on the female than the male character” (122), such that “females […] have not sufficient strength of mind to efface the superinductions of art that have smothered nature” (122). As a result, women do not question their perceived purpose in life—to please and attract men—nor do they attempt to acquire other or additional attributes to those forced upon them: “beauty and delicacy” (122).
One major effect of having such an unquestioning nature, Wollstonecraft says, is the type of men who women often fall in love with and thus seek to make their husbands. When women are only educated to acquire and understand “superficial accomplishments” (124), then they will only be drawn to men who similarly illustrate superficial accomplishments, such as society’s “rake” (124). The word “rake” typically describes a man of loose morals who nevertheless possesses a great deal of charm and flattery. Women of Wollstonecraft’s era were often criticized for being easily persuaded by the charms of a rake, and unable to discern the superior attributes of a man who is quieter and less outwardly amenable. However, Wollstonecraft argues that “till women are led to exercise their understandings, they should not be satirized for their attachment to rakes” (124)—being only educated themselves in manners and outward appearance, they will only be able to judge men by those things as well.
Furthermore, Wollstonecraft says that marriage between a man and a woman will perpetually prove difficult when “men, for whom we are told women were made, have too much occupied the thoughts of women” (125). As a result, the lives of women are usually centered upon love, which means, according to Wollstonecraft, that “they cannot live without love” (125). Because of this, women easily turn into either “abject wooers” (125) or “fond slaves” (125) in their relationship with their husbands, neither of which promises a marriage of equality or success.
Chapter 7 Summary: “Modesty: Comprehensively Considered, and Not as a Sexual Virtue.”
Wollstonecraft considers and unpacks the virtue of “modesty,” which is an attribute typically aligned with women and femininity. She begins by differentiating between modesty and “a simplicity of character” (128), and between modesty and “humility” (128), two different attributes often mistaken for modesty. According to Wollstonecraft, while modesty might be described as a “purity of mind” (128), humility is only ever “a kind of self-abasement” (128). Similarly, she also differentiates modesty from “bashfulness” (128), an attribute she describes as being a type of false modesty, and which is often witnessed in “the shameless behavior of the prostitutes who infest the streets of [her] metropolis” (129).
For Wollstonecraft, modesty is only something that can be attained by a “cultivated mind” (129) and cannot be acquired by sensibility. Because of this, women must practice reason and intelligence—attributes not typically expected of them—in order to attain true modesty:
The woman who has dedicated a considerable portion of her time to pursuits purely intellectual, and whose affections have been exercised by humane plans of usefulness, must have more purity of mind, as a natural consequence (130).
By this logic, Wollstonecraft argues, modesty is not in reality a specifically feminine attribute—as it is considered—but is instead something men can also practice. In fact, because men have the advantage of better education and are expected to practice intelligence and reason, Wollstonecraft states that she “should be led to expect to meet with more modesty amongst men than women, simply because men exercise their understandings more than women” (131).
Both Rousseau and Gregory—whose writing Wollstonecraft critiques in an earlier chapter—encourage women to be dishonest in their feelings towards their husbands, so that their husbands are never certain about how they feel. However, Wollstonecraft uses this as an example of immodest behavior, stating that “the woman is immodest who can let the shadow of such a doubt remain in her husband’s mind a moment” (132).
Finally, Wollstonecraft analyses the nature of female relationships and argues that women are too intimate and personal with each other, a status that encourages immodesty by encouraging vanity and gossip. She states that the “decent personal reserve which is the foundation of dignity of character, must be kept up between woman and woman, or their minds will never gain strength or modesty” (135). As a result, Wollstonecraft objects to “many females being shut up together in nurseries, schools, or convents” (135), as it only leads to “jokes and hoyden tricks” (135) and an obsession with dress and ornamentation, rather than neatness and mental and bodily strength. Wollstonecraft ends by addressing “my sisters” (138) and calling on them to remember that “the possession of virtue, of any denomination, is incompatible with ignorance and vanity” (138).
Chapter 8 Summary: “Morality Undermined by Sexual Notions of the Importance of a Good Reputation.”
Preserving a good reputation in society—something which has “been so strenuously inculcated on the female world” (139)—is, according to Wollstonecraft, one of the “specious poisons” (139) that undermine morality. Having a good reputation is—in Wollstonecraft’s era—the most important thing for women, greater than practicing morality or virtue. As a result, women are mostly concerned with acquiring an “artificial mode of behaviour” (139) precisely because women only need to seem to be chaste and virtuous in order to preserve their reputation, rather than needing to be chaste and virtuous: “it is reputation, not chastity and all its fair train, that they are employed to keep free from spot, not as a virtue, but to preserve their station in the world” (139).
Wollstonecraft details the many consequences of valuing reputation over virtue. She uses the example of a woman who might happily squander away all her money, “neglecting every domestic duty” (140), ignore her children, and still be judged well by society because of her “unsullied reputation” (140). Even Rousseau states explicitly that “what is thought of [a woman] is as important as what she really is” (141), implying that women should only concern themselves with how they are perceived by the rest of the world, rather than their own personal, moral integrity.
Wollstonecraft argues that it is possible to discern the difference between a person who only acts in the service of a good reputation, and the person who “is only employed to direct his steps aright, regardless of the lookers-on” (142) because the latter will always be “not only more true, but more sure” (142).
At its heart, a good reputation is about the preservation of chastity. However, as Wollstonecraft points out, while “the reputation of chastity is prized by women, it is despised by men: and the two extremes are equally destructive to morality” (145). Men, according to Wollstonecraft, have a greater “appetite” (145) than women, and this appetite is sometimes “depraved” (145), and can, as a result, lead them to mistreat women. However, it’s these mistreated women who incur the judgment of the rest of society for having lost their good reputation, and men receive no such punishment. As a result, Wollstonecraft argues that “all the causes of female weakness, as well as depravity, which I have already enlarged on, branch out of one good cause—want of chastity in men” (146).
Chapters 6-8 Analysis
In these chapters, Wollstonecraft turns to examine the so-called feminine ideals which women of her era are expected to strive towards: modesty, chastity, and manners. Wollstonecraft’s principle issue with these ideals is that they encourage women to focus primarily on superficialities—that is, on how women seem to others. In terms of manners, Wollstonecraft examines how women are often critiqued for judging others—primarily men—on the basis of manners and outward behavior, when they themselves have only ever been educated in the art of manners and conversation, and nothing deeper: “It seems a little absurd to expect women to be more reasonable than men in their likings, and still to deny them the uncontrolled use of reason” (123). Essentially, Wollstonecraft is critiquing a double-standard in society: that women are valued by men for no more than their manners and behavior, but they are expected to value men for their intelligence and reason, attributes that women have never been educated to discern or value.
Wollstonecraft then examines the ideals of modesty and chastity, describing how they help to inform the reputation of a woman. In Wollstonecraft’s era, for a woman—at least a woman of middle or upper class—to ruin her reputation would likely lead to societal alienation, and being spurned or even disowned by family members, and would make it almost impossible for her to marry. Thus, maintaining a good reputation was the most important concern for women of that era. However, this reputation—as Wollstonecraft points out—rested purely on chastity, or at least the appearance of chastity, and did not take into consideration things like neglect of children, moderate and cautious spending, and loyalty to family. As a result, it was possible for a woman to be immoral in almost every way towards both husband and children, but as long as she remains chaste—or seems to be chaste—she could still hold onto her good reputation.
The consequence of this, Wollstonecraft argues, is that women have become centrally concerned only with how they appear to others, and with maintaining sexual chastity, rather than practicing virtuous behavior in other aspects of life. Wollstonecraft believes that modesty has also become confounded with humility and bashfulness—a kind of flirtatious, false modesty—and few women of her era actually practice true modesty. Furthermore, she points out the hypocrisy of female chastity and reputation: that while women’s reputations can easily be ruined, men’s cannot. She argues that until men similarly practice both chastity and true modesty, women’s concerns and behaviors will always strive towards appearance—with how they seem to others—rather than towards the attainment of true virtue and respect.
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