engl 216 research_paper_engl_216 16.pdf

Josephine Buadu

Research Paper

ENGL 216

0406/2012

Title: A Case for the Holistic Enrichment and Empowerment of Women’s Lives through

created equal, that they are endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable rights that among

these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. However, as history has shown, though we

may profess this ideal notion of the immeasurable intrinsic worth of humans, females have over

the centuries been perceived and treated as secondary men inferior to their male counterparts.

Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women seeks to draw attention to the

maligned role of women in the 18th century. She advocates on the need to safeguard the rights of

women through their empowerment with the timeless tool of education so as to ensure they do

not regress socially and rather become valuable contributors to modern society. Though the

setting of this literary piece is over two centuries removed from today, it speaks to the general

state of the stagnation of women’s rights and their inability to secure more meaningful roles in

become contributors to the advancement of the human race and not impediments. The purpose of

this paper is to educate readers about the pressing need to insist upon and promote women rights

by showcasing the slow progression of women’s rights through history, the limited means of

social advancement of women, the need for higher education for all women and the positive

impact this higher education will have on today’s society.

Slow Progression of Women’s Rights through History

It is common knowledge that women’s rights and privileges have lagged behind that of

men for unexplainable reasons. History is fraught with examples where the rights of women have

taken a backseat to the rights of men. A case in point of the lag in the rights of women is the

The disparities in female and male rights in society have been in existence prior to the

authorship of A Vindication of Women’s Rights and they persist to today despite the efforts of

many to ensure uniformity among the sexes. Even in today’s modern society, the most

prestigious golf society, the host of the Augusta golf tournament, refuses to publicly address its

Universally, it is accepted that males are biologically constituted different from females.

In her musings, Wollstonecraft rightly points out that “in the government of the physical world it

is observable that the female in point of strength is, in general, inferior to the male” (Greenblatt,

1460) Although these biological differences exist, it does not mandate the lower sense of value

society has ascribed to females and their rights relative to that of their male counterparts

throughout history. The biological differences conferred unto women by nature as Wollstonecraft

that author of the Vindication of Women Rights suggests that women could meaningfully advance

in society was only through marriage (Greenblatt, 1461)). The few women who gained suitable

life-long partners were then perceived to be destined for high mobility on the society ladder. This

transformation from spinster to a married woman did not grant access to the level of education

and legal rights that men experienced in the 18th century. The elevated married female relative to

the married male was resigned to childcare, childbirth, cooking, cleaning, dress, paint and

nicknaming God’s creatures (Wollstonecraft, Greenblatt, 1462).As historical records have shown

Furthermore marriage as a perceived means of social mobility or refinement,

presupposes that any female who was not fortunate to be married in the course of her lifetime

would be left in an impoverished state of lower “ scale of animal being” until death. With the

present rate of divorces in the United States and the longer the current generation waits before

getting married, if marriage were still to be the only way females could rise above in society the

value of most women in the United States would be at a historical low even compared to that of

the Wollstonecraft’s era.

to than formerly”; it was still very inadequate giving a false sense and “mistaken notion of

female excellence” (Greenblatt, 1461 ). The education that women received left them “still

reckoned a frivolous sex, and ridiculed or pitied by the (very) writers who endeavor by satire or

instruction to improve them” (Greenblatt, 1461).

The education of women based on the 18th century standard did not prepare women to be

the most ideal partners for their husbands or champions for the preservation of modern society

them to become more masculine and respectable” (Greenblatt, 1462).

In today’s modern society, women have access to higher education and teachings far

above what they were limited to in the 18th century. There are a lot more women attaining

Associate, Bachelor and Masters’ degrees in the field of science and arts at historical levels.

However, despite these laudable gains in access, women still lag behind their male counterparts

in the pursuit and the attainment of Doctorate degrees (Jacobs, 153-85).

Positive Impact Higher Education of Women has had and will have on Society.

The aforementioned lapse in education of women in the 18th century and throughout

history and in modern society clearly shows that the advancement of women’s rights with the

in the beginning of the twentieth century was in part a result of the higher quality of education

they were fortunate to receive (317-346). When women are given greater access to higher,

holistic, and comprehensive education the results that flow through society elevating the human

race to levels higher than before cannot be disputed (Jacobs, 153-85). In the United States, the

attainment of suffrage rights of women facilitated through educated female activists resulted in a

flood of legislation that increased public health spending and reducing childhood mortality

(Miller, 1287-1327).

education of society by David S. Brown in the British Journal of Political Science, higher access

to education results in the generation of a force that drives economic growth (137).

In conclusion, women’s rights have a long way since the 18th century, yet there are lapses

that still need to be addressed. Women need access to all higher levels of education and all

barriers that prevented this should be removed to ensure the success of females. When women

are granted access to a complete education, they have the tendency to succeed, and when they

succeed, society also benefits as a whole. According to Mary Wollstonecraft, “let women be only

1997 :1456-1484.

Social Affairs. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination

against women. Retrieved 3/27/2012 from

<http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/reservations-country.htm> .

3. Brown, David S. “Democracy and Gender Inequality in Education: A Cross-National

4. Jacobs, J.A. “Gender inequality and higher education”. Annu. Rev. Social 22

(1996):153-85.

Rights and Family Law in the United States During the Twentieth Century”.

History, 4.3(1980) 317-346.