Wollstonecraft writes, “I do not wish the (women) to\nhave power over men; but over themselves.” (p.10, Texts and Traditions\nReader). Explain what you think Wollstonecraft means, and how can it (this\npower over themselves) be explained by reference to Kant’s essay on the\nquestion of “What is Enlightenment?” (pp. 3, 4 Reader).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wollstonecraft\u2019s view is that women\nought not to always be worried about men or worry about having more power than\nmen but rather their focus should be directed towards their life, bettering it,\nand making their decisions towards gaining autonomy. The position that has\ntraditionally been preserved for women is subordinate to men with main\nresponsibilities being cooking, cleaning, and bearing children. As such, women\nhave had little autonomy in decision making, often relying on men to make all\ndecisions even when such decisions have a direct impact on women. While\nWollstonecraft is not advocating for women to be empowered to take the position\nof men, her view is that women should trend the path of independence and gain\nthe confidence to have a voice in the issues affecting them. Kant argues that\nbeing enlightened is to emerge from immaturity that is self-imposed and is a\nlack of courage as well as the resolve to utilize an individual’s understanding\nwithout seeking guidance from third parties (p.1). Therefore, Wollstonecraft is\ncalling upon women to shun away what Kant calls self-imposed immaturity and\ngain independence to act without approval from others. In my view, gaining\nindependence for women can be achieved by educating women in such a way that\nthey are not only able to make decisions but also make informed decisions. By\nproviding women with opportunities to gain an education, it will be possible to\nbring blind obedience to an end as Wollstonecraft postulates. In this respect,\nwomen should aim at pursuing education without much regard for their\nmatrimonial state to maximize moral, intellectual, and temperamental\nconstitution, putting them in a position to rise in public and private life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the view of Wollstonecraft’s\npostulation, she desires to have women grow in equality to have similar rights\nas men. Wollstonecraft is fighting the long-held belief of men having more\nrights and being more equal human beings than women. Giving women equal rights\nwith men is not meant to have more power than men neither will it replace men\nfrom their positions. As Kant points out, human beings can only gain\nenlightenment through gaining freedom where freedom can only be guaranteed\nthrough equality. Once freedom and equality for women are attained they will be\nable to step out of what has become their nature; nature which has been\ncultivated by no one allowing them to make attempts (Kant, p.2). Equality empowers\nwomen to be exposed to situations that need them to utilize their mental\nindependence, thus putting their abilities and natural gifts to the task,\nconsequently developing them further. Even though there is the possibility of\nwomen failing once or twice, the lessons learned are integral in making them\nstand and walk alone. As such, women having power over themselves is to make an\nattempt to stand alone in the face of patronizing male guardians who often show\nthem that standing alone is dangerous. Women\u2019s having equal rights as men is a\nrecipe for them to follow in the virtues of men as they desire to grow in\nperfection and act rationally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Women and society at large regard\nbeauty, outward obedience, and softness of temper as the ultimate measures of strength.\nHowever, I would opine that Wollstonecraft\u2019s view of women\u2019s endeavor to have\npower over self is entrenched in the need for them to stop viewing beauty as strength.\nWollstonecraft says that women are taught since childhood to emulate their\nmothers to hold beauty as a critical aspect for seeking protection from man\nciting everything else when there is beauty as needless (p.10). Further, the\ncontinued holding of these views are not strengths but rather a show of\nweakness which brews contempt. Continuously referring to women on the basis of their\nbeauty is a ploy by men to maintain a culture of holding women in a childhood\nstatus. Emphasizing on the aspects of beauty and outward obedience is\nprerequisite to making women objects of convenience rather than giving them\nequal opportunities and platforms to grow and empower themselves so they are no\nlonger viewed as weak and artificial human beings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wollstonecraft\u2019s quote is in tandem\nwith what Kant describes as enlightenment citing that is can be easy to be\nimmature with cowardice acting as the basis of immaturity. It is as a result of\nsuch cowardice that women have over the time depended on men to direct their\nlives as Kant says \u201cthe physician determines my diet and the pastor serves as\nmy conscience\u201d (p.1). As such, unless women gain power over themselves they may\nremain under the shadows of men who act as \u201cguardians\u201d who turn them into \u201cdumb\ndomestic livestock\u201d from the fear of what women would turn to should they be\nempowered. Women having power over themselves will drive them from the state\nthat they have been fond of to cultivate their minds and surmount the\nrestrictions that have over time been imposed on them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wollstonecraft writes, “I do not wish the (women) to have power over men; but over themselves.” (p.10, Texts and Traditions Reader). Explain what you think Wollstonecraft means, and how can it (this power over themselves) be explained by reference to Kant’s essay on the question of “What is Enlightenment?” (pp. 3, 4 Reader). Wollstonecraft\u2019s view […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research-paper-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1096"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1097,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096\/revisions\/1097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}