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The divine right of husbands, like the divine right of kings, may, it is hoped, in this enlightened age, be contested without danger.
Mary Wollstonecraft
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote asserts that the unquestioned authority of husbands over their wives, similar to kings over subjects, should be challenged in a more enlightened society.

Mary Wollstonecraft critiques the traditional notion of male authority in marriage, comparing it to the obsolete belief in the divine right of kings. She advocates for questioning and contesting these outdated power dynamics, emphasizing the importance of equality and reason in relationships as society progresses toward enlightenment.

Themes

EqualityMarriageAuthorityEnlightenmentRights

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in discussions about gender equality in modern relationships.

More from Mary Wollstonecraft

Taught from infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.
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Make women rational creatures, and free citizens, and they will quickly become good wives; - that is, if men do not neglect the duties of husbands and fathers.
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But what a weak barrier is truth when it stands in the way of an hypothesis!
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Women are degraded by the propensity to enjoy the present moment, and, at last, despise the freedom which they have not sufficient virtue to struggle to attain.
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Perhaps the seeds of false-refinement, immorality, and vanity, have ever been shed by the great. Weak, artificial beings, raised above the common wants and defections of their race, in a premature and unnatural manner, undermine the very foundation of virtue, and spread corruption through the whole mass of society!
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It would be an endless task to trace the variety of meannesses, cares, and sorrows into which women are plunged by the prevailing opinion that they were created rather to feel than reason, and that all the power they obtain must be obtained by their charms and weaknesses.
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