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.
Mary WollstonecraftRead
If women be educated for dependence; that is, to act according to the will of another fallible being, and submit, right or wrong, to power, where are we to stop?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of women's education and the dangers of fostering dependence on others.
Mary Wollstonecraft highlights the urgency of educating women not just to submit to the will of others, but to empower them to think independently and act on their own judgment. She argues that if women's education is solely aimed at making them dependent on men or the will of others, it raises critical questions about the limits of such dependence and the implications it has for society as a whole.
Themes
WomenEducationIndependenceEmpowermentDependence
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech about women's rights, one might use this quote to emphasize the need for equal educational opportunities.
More from Mary Wollstonecraft
All quotes βMake 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.
Mary WollstonecraftRead
But what a weak barrier is truth when it stands in the way of an hypothesis!
Mary WollstonecraftRead
The divine right of husbands, like the divine right of kings, may, it is hoped, in this enlightened age, be contested without danger.
Mary WollstonecraftRead
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.
Mary WollstonecraftRead
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!
Mary WollstonecraftRead
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