INTRODUCTION.

by Mary Wollstonecraft

　　After considering the historic page, and viewing the living worldwith anxious solicitude, the most melancholy emotions of sorrowfulindignation have depressed my spirits, and I have sighed whenobliged to confess, that either nature has made a great differencebetween man and man, or that the civilization, which has hithertotaken place in the world, has been very partial. I have turnedover various books written on the subject of education, andpatiently observed the conduct of parents and the management ofschools; but what has been the result? a profound conviction, thatthe neglected education of my fellow creatures is the grand sourceof the misery I deplore; and that women in particular, are renderedweak and wretched by a variety of concurring causes, originatingfrom one hasty conclusion. The conduct and manners of women, infact, evidently prove, that their minds are not in a healthy state;for, like the flowers that are planted in too rich a soil,strength and usefulness are sacrificed to beauty; and the flauntingleaves, after having pleased a fastidious eye, fade, disregarded onthe stalk, long before the season when they ought to have arrivedat maturity. One cause of this barren blooming I attribute to afalse system of education, gathered from the books written on thissubject by men, who, considering females rather as women than humancreatures, have been more anxious to make them alluring mistressesthan rational wives; and the understanding of the sex has been sobubbled by this specious homage, that the civilized women of thepresent century, with a few exceptions, are only anxious to inspirelove, when they ought to cherish a nobler ambition, and by theirabilities and virtues exact respect.

　　In a treatise, therefore, on female rights and manners, the workswhich have been particularly written for their improvement must notbe overlooked; especially when it is asserted, in direct terms,that the minds of women are enfeebled by false refinement; that thebooks of instruction, written by men of genius, have had the sametendency as more frivolous productions; and that, in the true styleof Mahometanism, they are only considered as females, and not as apart of the human species, when improvable reason is allowed to bethe dignified distinction, which raises men above the brutecreation, and puts a natural sceptre in a feeble hand.

　　Yet, because I am a woman, I would not lead my readers to suppose,that I mean violently to agitate the contested question respectingthe equality and inferiority of the sex; but as the subject lies inmy way, and I cannot pass it over without subjecting the maintendency of my reasoning to misconstruction, I shall stop a momentto deliver, in a few words, my opinion. In the government of thephysical world, it is observable that the female, in general, isinferior to the male. The male pursues, the female yields—this isthe law of nature; and it does not appear to be suspended orabrogated in favour of woman. This physical superiority cannot bedenied—and it is a noble prerogative! But not content with thisnatural pre-eminence, men endeavour to sink us still lower, merelyto render us alluring objects for a moment; and women, intoxicatedby the adoration which men, under the influence of their senses,pay them, do not seek to obtain a durable interest in their hearts,or to become the friends of the fellow creatures who find amusementin their society.

　　I am aware of an obvious inference: from every quarter have I heardexclamations against masculine women; but where are they to befound? If, by this appellation, men mean to inveigh against theirardour in hunting, shooting, and gaming, I shall most cordiallyjoin in the cry; but if it be, against the imitation of manlyvirtues, or, more properly speaking, the attainment of thosetalents and virtues, the exercise of which ennobles the humancharacter, and which raise females in the scale of animal being,when they are comprehensively termed mankind—all those who viewthem with a philosophical eye must, I should think, wish with me,that they may every day grow more and more masculine.

　　This discussion naturally divides the subject. I shall firstconsider women in the grand light of human creatures, who, incommon with men, are placed on this earth to unfold theirfaculties; and afterwards I shall more particularly point out theirpeculiar designation.

　　I wish also to steer clear of an error, which many respectablewriters have fallen into; for the instruction which has hithertobeen addressed to women, has rather been applicable to LADIES, ifthe little indirect advice, that is scattered through Sandford andMerton, be excepted; but, addressing my sex in a firmer tone, I payparticular attention to those in the middle class, because theyappear to be in the most natural state. Perhaps the seeds of falserefinement, immorality, and vanity have ever been shed by thegreat. Weak, artificial beings raised above the common wants andaffections of their race, in a premature unnatural manner,undermine the very foundation of virtue, and spread corruptionthrough the whole mass of society! As a class of mankind they havethe strongest claim to pity! the education of the rich tends torender them vain and helpless, and the unfolding mind is notstrengthened by the practice of those duties which dignify thehuman character. They only live to amuse themselves, and by thesame law which in nature invariably produces certain effects, theysoon only afford barren amusement.

　　But as I purpose taking a separate view of the different ranks ofsociety, and of the moral character of women, in each, this hintis, for the present, sufficient; and I have only alluded to thesubject, because it appears to me to be the very essence of anintroduction to give a cursory account of the contents of the workit introduces.

　　My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rationalcreatures, instead of flattering their FASCINATING graces, andviewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood,unable to stand alone. I earnestly wish to point out in what truedignity and human happiness consists—I wish to persuade women toendeavour to acquire strength, both of mind and body, and toconvince them, that the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart,delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are almostsynonymous with epithets of weakness, and that those beings who areonly the objects of pity and that kind of love, which has beentermed its sister, will soon become objects of contempt.

　　Dismissing then those pretty feminine phrases, which the mencondescendingly use to soften our slavish dependence, and despisingthat weak elegancy of mind, exquisite sensibility, and sweetdocility of manners, supposed to be the sexual characteristics ofthe weaker vessel, I wish to show that elegance is inferior tovirtue, that the first object of laudable ambition is to obtain acharacter as a human being, regardless of the distinction of sex;and that secondary views should be brought to this simpletouchstone.

　　This is a rough sketch of my plan; and should I express myconviction with the energetic emotions that I feel whenever I thinkof the subject, the dictates of experience and reflection will befelt by some of my readers. Animated by this important object, Ishall disdain to cull my phrases or polish my style—I aim at beinguseful, and sincerity will render me unaffected; for wishing ratherto persuade by the force of my arguments, than dazzle by theelegance of my language, I shall not waste my time in roundingperiods, nor in fabricating the turgid bombast of artificialfeelings, which, coming from the head, never reach the heart. Ishall be employed about things, not words! and, anxious to rendermy sex more respectable members of society, I shall try to avoidthat flowery diction which has slided from essays into novels, andfrom novels into familiar letters and conversation.

　　These pretty nothings, these caricatures of the real beauty ofsensibility, dropping glibly from the tongue, vitiate the taste,and create a kind of sickly delicacy that turns away from simpleunadorned truth; and a deluge of false sentiments andover-stretched feelings, stifling the natural emotions of theheart, render the domestic pleasures insipid, that ought to sweetenthe exercise of those severe duties, which educate a rational andimmortal being for a nobler field of action.

　　The education of women has, of late, been more attended to thanformerly; yet they are still reckoned a frivolous sex, andridiculed or pitied by the writers who endeavour by satire orinstruction to improve them. It is acknowledged that they spendmany of the first years of their lives in acquiring a smattering ofaccomplishments: meanwhile, strength of body and mind aresacrificed to libertine notions of beauty, to the desire ofestablishing themselves, the only way women can rise in theworld—by marriage. And this desire making mere animals of them,when they marry, they act as such children may be expected to act:they dress; they paint, and nickname God's creatures. Surely theseweak beings are only fit for the seraglio! Can they govern afamily, or take care of the poor babes whom they bring into theworld?

　　If then it can be fairly deduced from the present conduct of thesex, from the prevalent fondness for pleasure, which takes place ofambition and those nobler passions that open and enlarge the soul;that the instruction which women have received has only tended,with the constitution of civil society, to render theminsignificant objects of desire; mere propagators of fools! if itcan be proved, that in aiming to accomplish them, withoutcultivating their understandings, they are taken out of theirsphere of duties, and made ridiculous and useless when the shortlived bloom of beauty is over*, I presume that RATIONAL men willexcuse me for endeavouring to persuade them to become moremasculine and respectable.

　　(*Footnote. A lively writer, I cannot recollect his name, askswhat business women turned of forty have to do in the world.)

　　Indeed the word masculine is only a bugbear: there is littlereason to fear that women will acquire too much courage orfortitude; for their apparent inferiority with respect to bodilystrength, must render them, in some degree, dependent on men in thevarious relations of life; but why should it be increased byprejudices that give a sex to virtue, and confound simple truthswith sensual reveries?

　　Women are, in fact, so much degraded by mistaken notions of femaleexcellence, that I do not mean to add a paradox when I assert, thatthis artificial weakness produces a propensity to tyrannize, andgives birth to cunning, the natural opponent of strength, whichleads them to play off those contemptible infantile airs thatundermine esteem even whilst they excite desire. Do not fosterthese prejudices, and they will naturally fall into theirsubordinate, yet respectable station in life.

　　It seems scarcely necessary to say, that I now speak of the sex ingeneral. Many individuals have more sense than their malerelatives; and, as nothing preponderates where there is a constantstruggle for an equilibrium, without it has naturally more gravity,some women govern their husbands without degrading themselves,because intellect will always govern.