Mary Wollstonecraft What rights did women have during late 1800s? 27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797 Aim: To understand contextual information regarding Mary Shelley’s mother and the rights of women at the time. What rights did women have during late 1800s? Shelley’s mother, Mary Wollstonecraft wrote a text entitled “A Vindication of the Rights of Women”. vin·di·ca·tion  (vnd-kshn)n. 1. The act of vindicating or condition of being vindicated. 2. The defense, such as evidence or argument, that serves to justify a claim or deed. What is meant by the noun ‘Vindication’ or the verb to ‘Vindicate’. What do you expect this text to cover?

Key Information: Women’s Rights In the early 1800s, women were second-class citizens. Women were expected to restrict their sphere of interest to the home and the family. Women were not encouraged to obtain a real education or pursue a professional career. After marriage, women did not have the right to own their own property, keep their own wages, or sign a contract. In addition, all women were denied the right to vote. Only after decades of intense political activity did women eventually win the right to vote. In 1839, a law was passed which stated that if a marriage broke down and the parents separated, children under seven years of age should stay with their mother. In 1857, women could divorce husbands who were cruel to them or husbands who had left them. In 1870, women were allowed to keep money they had earned. In 1891, women could not be forced to live with husbands unless they wished to. These were very important laws which advanced the rights of women. However, they were good laws on paper. If a woman left her husband for whatever reason, it would have been very difficult for her to keep herself and children simply because the attitude of Victorian Britain was that women should stay at home and look after their husbands. The culture of the time meant that very few women were skilled in any obvious profession and, therefore, there were few jobs that paid well for women during the nineteenth century. This view was supported by Queen Victoria - she hardly did anything to advance the cause of women. In 1870, Queen Victoria had written "let women be what God intended, a helpmate for man, but with totally different duties and vocations." 

Successfully explaining context: Band AO4 Definition Key words 5 “consistently developed and consistently detailed understanding of the significance and influence of contexts in which literary texts are written and understood, as appropriate to the question.” developed, detailed 4 “good, clear evaluation of the significance and influence of contexts in which literary texts are written and understood, as appropriate to the question.” good, clear evaluation 3 “competent understanding of the significance and influence of contexts in which literary texts are written and understood, as appropriate to the question.” competent understanding

Mary Shelley’s parents Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin were notable figures in the English Enlightenment. She was famous as the author of the radical and ground-breaking work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, published in 1792. He was the most celebrated philosopher of the day. Their relationship was brief and intense. When they married in 1797 they had been lovers for about a year. Five months after the marriage their daughter Mary was born. It was a difficult birth, and Mary Wollstonecraft died just a few days later. ‘This light was lent to me for a very short period, and is now extinguished for ever!’ William Godwin’s memoir of Mary Wollstonecraft, 1798

‘A Vindication on the Rights of Women’ (1792) Wollstonecraft is sometimes called the first feminist or the mother of feminism; however, these terms were not coined until 1890s. Egalitarian principles: Men and women should be treated equally as they would be by God, both subject to same moral law. Both men and women should respect the sanctity of marriage. Men are as much corrupted by being tyrants as women by being subject to them. Rational education: Women would perform just as well as men if they were educated in the same way as men are. Women should be trained for the professions and could run businesses and farms. Society was wasting its assets by: failing to educate them failing to offer them the opportunity to work in the same areas as men, not allowing them to be economically independent. False and excessive sensibility: Women do harm to civilisation by succumbing to traditional “feminine virtues”. They are too overly influenced by feelings; being "blown about by every momentary gust of feeling"

Contemporary reactions How do you think people at the time reacted to A Vindication on the Rights of Women? What social and political ideas did the text challenge? Critical Reception A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was much acclaimed in radical political circles when it was published, but it also attracted considerable hostility. The statesman Horace Walpole, for example, called Wollstonecraft “a hyena in petticoats,” and for most of the nineteenth century the book was ignored because of its scandalous reputation. Beginning in the late twentieth century, literary critics and philosophers began to take great interest in Wollstonecraft's treatise as one of the founding works of feminism. Some issues discussed by commentators of Wollstonecraft's treatise are the author's attitude toward sexuality, ideas about education, the role of reason versus passion, attitudes toward slavery, the relevance of the work to contemporary struggles for rights, the unflattering portrayal of women, and the status of the work as a foundational feminist text.

Sensibility Sensibility emerged as a concept in the Enlightenment Era but continued to be defined during the Romantic Period and beyond. The term describes people’s capacity to be affected by the world around them. It also directly correlates their emotional capabilities with their moral development. A high moral standard should result in an appropriate emotional response. What was considered “appropriate” was different for men and women, however. People thought that sensibility led men to knowledge, whereas appropriate feminine sensibility resulted in good behavior. Virtue is defined as “A particular moral excellence; a special manifestation of the influence of moral principles in life or conduct” (OED). According to some definitions, then, sensibility is the display of virtue—at least, such is the case for women in the nineteenth century.

Sensibility and the ideals of marriage Look at the three extracts on sensibility and the what are the ideal qualities of a union. What does Wollstonecraft believe a marriage should be built upon? What do characters in Frankenstein desire from their relationships? Think about: Frankenstein’s parents; Frankenstein and Elizabeth; The monster and his desired mate. Modern feminists believe Wollstonecraft intentionally avoids granting women any sexual desire. Why would she have done this? How does this help us understand the relationships in Frankenstein?

Writing about Frankenstein Choose a quotation from the text and write a paragraph explaining what this evidence reveals about the role of women in the text. Use the contextual information you have learned. Band AO4 keywords 5 consistently developed and consistently detailed understanding of the significance and influence of contexts 4 good, clear evaluation of the significance and influence of contexts 3 competent understanding of the significance and influence of contexts