Quotation
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“Contending for the rights of woman, my main argument is built on this simple principle, that if she be not prepared by education to become the companion of man, she will stop the progress of knowledge and virtue.”
Mary Wollstonecraft · Enlightenment feminism · Enlightenment · 1792
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is strategic and principled at once: she tells a French statesman that the case for women's rights rests on education, because a woman not prepared to be a companion will stall knowledge and virtue for everyone, since truth has to be common to all or it will not govern practice. A competing reading hears a plea only to make better wives. Companion, in the sentence, is an equal in reason, and the dedication goes on to ask how a woman can cooperate if she does not know why she ought to be virtuous. It stands in the letter to Talleyrand, before the introduction's address to women themselves. The simple principle is the book's load-bearing wall. Rights are argued from the damage ignorance does to virtue, not from a separate feminine morality.
Did Mary Wollstonecraft really say this?
The library’s label is Well attested. Wollstonecraft's own English, in the dedicatory letter to Talleyrand that prefaces the 1792 Vindication. She adds that truth must be common to all or it will be inefficacious. The sentence is not from chapter 4, which has the line about power over themselves.
Where it comes from
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, dedication to Talleyrand-Périgord
Approximate date: 1792.
How to use it
A school in Bradford that streams girls, kindly, into the modules that do not lead to the exam the boys sit, and then talks about partnership at assembly, has refused the preparation the sentence demands. She is not asking for charm. She is saying that a companion in knowledge is a condition of virtue's progress, including the men's. A workplace that calls women stakeholders and does not teach them the budget is the same structure. The stall is general. That is her point to a legislator.
A mindset reading
When an argument for inclusion is made only in the language of help for the excluded group, check whether the speaker sees a cost to everyone else's knowledge. The habit is hers: tie the right to a shared capacity for truth. She thinks a virtue the other sex cannot understand will not govern practice. That is a stricter claim than 'be kind'.
Understand the philosophy
The dedication is a political letter, written while Talleyrand was involved in plans for French education. The key principle is that education for companionship is required if knowledge and virtue are to progress. The introduction, already quoted here, says she will treat women as rational creatures. Chapter 4 says she wants women to have power over themselves, not over men. The dedication is the same project stated to a man with power over a curriculum.
- knowledge
- virtue
- society
FAQ
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is strategic and principled at once: she tells a French statesman that the case for women's rights rests on education, because a woman not prepared to be a companion will stall knowledge and virtue for everyone, since truth has to be common to all or it will not govern practice. A competing reading hears a plea only to make better wives. Companion, in the sentence, is an equal in reason, and the dedication goes on to ask how a woman can cooperate if she does not know why she ought to be virtuous. It stands in the letter to Talleyrand, before the introduction's address to women themselves. The simple principle is the book's load-bearing wall. Rights are argued from the damage ignorance does to virtue, not from a separate feminine morality.
Did Mary Wollstonecraft really say this?
Well attested. Wollstonecraft's own English, in the dedicatory letter to Talleyrand that prefaces the 1792 Vindication. She adds that truth must be common to all or it will be inefficacious. The sentence is not from chapter 4, which has the line about power over themselves.
Which work is it in?
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, dedication to Talleyrand-Périgord Approximate date: 1792.