A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral SubjectsWollstonecraft, Mary
Philosophy
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects
Wollstonecraft, Mary
Feminism; Women -- Education -- Great Britain; Women -- History -- 19th century; Women's rights -- Great Britain
In the best regulated schools, however, where swarms are not
crammed together many bad habits must be acquired; but, at common
schools, the body, heart, and understanding, are equally stunted,
for parents are often only in quest of the cheapest school, and the
master could not live, if he did not take a much greater number
than he could manage himself; nor will the scanty pittance, allowed
for each child, permit him to hire ushers sufficient to assist in
the discharge of the mechanical part of the business. Besides,
whatever appearance the house and garden may make, the children do
not enjoy the comforts of either, for they are continually
reminded, by irksome restrictions, that they are not at home, and
the state-rooms, garden, etc. must be kept in order for the
recreation of the parents; who, of a Sunday, visit the school, and
are impressed by the very parade that renders the situation of
their children uncomfortable.
With what disgust have I heard sensible women, for girls are more
restrained and cowed than boys, speak of the wearisome confinement
which they endured at school. Not allowed, perhaps, to step out of
one broad walk in a superb garden, and obliged to pace with steady
deportment stupidly backwards and forwards, holding up their heads,
and turning out their toes, with shoulders braced back, instead of
bounding, as nature directs to complete her own design, in the
various attitudes so conducive to health. The pure animal spirits,
which make both mind and body shoot out, and unfold the tender
blossoms of hope are turned sour, and vented in vain wishes, or
pert repinings, that contract the faculties and spoil the temper;
else they mount to the brain and sharpening the understanding
before it gains proportionable strength, produce that pitiful
cunning which disgracefully characterizes the female mind--and I
fear will ever characterize it whilst women remain the slaves of
power!
The little respect which the male world pay to chastity is, I am
persuaded, the grand source of many of the physical and moral evils
that torment mankind, as well as of the vices and follies that
degrade and destroy women; yet at school, boys infallibly lose that
decent bashfulness, which might have ripened into modesty at home.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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