[Last Name] 1
Zenique Whyte Whyte 1
Mr. Kaminski
English 215
11/22/2018
Gender and Feminist Criticism
Feminist criticism is defined as “…the ways in which literature (and other cultural productions)
reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women”
(Lois Tyson, ). It, is seen as a stereotypical representation of genders. David Conway says: ‘It is
true that the number of working women is less; but the reason for that is not the men dominance.
This is based on the physical and mental structure between sexes.’ (Conway, David: 2000).
When analyzed, women are seen like a commodity of amusement and a contractual arrangement.
History in the 18th century is relatively known in under-rating women writers, however, due to
women such as, Mary Wollstonecraft and Jamaica Kincaid both earned their place within the
literary field who enlightened others on societal gender discrimination.
Mary Wollstonecraft’s “A Vindication of The Rights Of Woman” sets during the early stages of
the “bourgeois revolution,” Wollstonecraft pressingly tried to empower women in the new
society, she recognized the oppressive bourgeois societal structure and tries to build awareness.
This short story predominantly addresses men by noting that Wollstonecraft responds to the
works written by male philosophers, like authors such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau who presumes
that, women are subdued by their own preconceptions and desires. Though Rousseau and others
[Last Name] 2
stress the importance of reason and equality in political affairs, on the other hand, they believe
women are owned and should provide entertainment to men and all her efforts are to please him.
She uses Rousseau’s perverse concluded logic against him. “...This habitual restraint produces a
docility which woman requires all her life long, for she will always be in subjection to a man, or
a man’s judgment, and she will never be free to set her own opinion above his…” states
Rousseau. He conjectures about women’s natural state of dependence and desire to be obedient,
but Wollstonecraft argues that, this is the natural result of years of servitude that was forced on
them. To his suggestion that girls are naturally flirtatious, she replies that they could not be
otherwise, having been rewarded for such behavior from birth.
She insists that “reason” is crucial for the development of an ethical, virtuous character.
