Barbauld's Argument Essay

Mina Loy’s writing, “Feminist Manifesto”, is about feminism in the early 20th century. In this period, women were fighting for equality in their everyday life. Loy’s idea is that women should not try to be equal to man but to find a standard within themselves to live up to. This piece has modernism ideas as she is encouraging a change to society and women’s values. She repeatedly questions traditional values and beliefs about women’s roles in society. She was trying to make a historical change for all women in the 20th century. Loy says, “She abandons the suffragette movement’s central issue of equality and insists instead on an adversarial model of gender, claiming that women should not look to men for a standard of value but should find it

these “female follies,” on men and argues, “From the tyranny of man, I firmly believe, the

Despite the achievements of women in many different fields, society still attempts to limit women to certain roles. Furthermore, in the poem, women “… are defined […] by what [they] never will be,” (lines 19 - 21); once again, the author claims that women are defined by what they are unable to do because of gender bias. Instead of being given the chance to be influential, they are continually limited to staying at home or doing jobs “meant for women.” Finally, Boland tells the tutor that women “…were never on the scene of crime,” (lines 27 - 28). This serves as a metaphor for how women are never allowed to do important jobs; instead, they are left at the sidelines due to the repeatedly ignored restrictions placed on women by our gender-biased society.

Patriarchal culture has dominated society throughout history. Males have control in many aspects of life and women have continued to fight for equal rights in society. There are many ways women have contributed to the fight for equality; some more physical and other less abrasive. Education and Literature gave the voice to a few women in a male-centered world. Poet Lady Mary Wroth captures the injustices experienced by women in the feminine narrative of Sonnet 9 from her collection of sonnets, songs, and lyrics entitled 'Pamphilia to Amphilantus. In this poem, Wroth explores the thoughts of elite women in the 1700s and uses aspects of her own cultural and historic circumstance to convey the theme of a religious patriarchal society.

In Wollstonecraft’s work, she addresses the differences between men and women as being something that should be considered negligible, but instead is used to practically enslave one half of the population. The work details how women are akin to playthings when they lack an education, and that for her to truly be herself and practice her own free will, she must be knowledgeable. However, there are many different kinds of education, Wollstonecraft points out. Men received a formal education, consisting of a proper teaching of many subjects, while also aiding the young men in personal growth. Women, on the other hand, received a much less formal education. In their day to day lives, women observed, they leeched off

“The Rights of Woman” is not a critique of feminism itself, but of the branch of feminism that advocates the belief that in order for women to receive equal rights in society, they must first subjugate men. Barbauld argues that, in order for women to receive equal rights, they need to take up a place beside men. The concept of mutual love is a reoccurring theme in Barbauld’s writing, and it illustrates her societal ideal. In her text, she envisions a world in which the duties and positions of women and men are equal in power and respect.

No genuine equality, no real freedom, no true manhood or womanhood can exist on any foundation save that of pecuniary independence.

The Romantic Period built an environment where women were painted with flowery diction (Wollstonecraft, 216) and were incapable of independence. The Rights of Woman became a crucial topic, particularly in poetry which allowed women the freedom of expression. Accordingly, during the early eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, women writers did not need the prop of their male contemporaries like suggested. Evidently, women were able, successful, and professional writers in their own right. In fact, women often influenced male writers (Dustin, 42). Both Mary Wollstonecraft and Anna Letitia Barbauld are evidence that women did not need to rely on their male peers to become successful poets. Consequently, many poets took inspiration from them (Dustin, 32). In The Rights of Woman and Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Anna Letitia Barbauld and Mary Wollstonecraft had contrasting ideas. Barbauld’s The Rights of Woman was a documented reaction towards Wollstonecraft’s extremely controversial Vindication. Henceforth, both indicate a separate message for the Rights of the Woman. Assumedly, Barbauld misinterpreted Wollstonecraft and readings of The Rights of Woman in the twenty-first century appear antifeminist as a result.

At present, women’s issues have occupied a special place in periodicals, literature and art. In spite of the fact that both international and national legislative acts proceed from the principle of equality, in practice women do not enjoy equal rights in public life. There is a noticeable contradiction between the new needs and the lack of conditions in society for their satisfaction: the social consciousness of women increases, they no longer satisfy the stereotype of social roles imposed on them, where the family and motherhood are the only values. The answer to the existing contradictions is found in the women's movements. I'm not an adherent of feminism because I do not think that now women have less rights than men. Several decades ago, there really was a division between men and women, when women were without human rights. In modern society, most women have the right to vote, the right to choose and enjoy the same rights as men; hence the movement itself, in my opinion, is not relevant in the 21st century. On the other hand, there are a couple of religions that consider women unequal with men, and only in this case I support feminism as a movement for women’s rights. So, I do not consider women worse than men and I do not think, that a woman can be used as a thing. “This is particularly clear when cultures openly discriminate against women and attempt to deny them the rights to

In A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Wollstonecraft writes more about women’s equality from the political side. Sor Juana writes about women’s equality more from the domestic side in You Foolish Men. Wollstonecraft focuses on issues such as education, claiming that the only reason a man might seem smarter than a woman is because the man has received a higher level of education than women. “Contending for the rights of woman, my main argument is built on this simple principle, that if she [is] not prepared by education to become the companion of man, she will stop the progress of knowledge and virtue; for truth must be common to all, or it will be inefficacious with respect to its general practice,” Wollstonecraft argues. Setting the tone for the poem as a whole, Sor Juana opens You Foolish Men with, “You foolish men who lay the guilt on women, not seeing you’re the cause of the very thing you blame.”

With this assertion, Wollstonecraft argues that the only reason that women are perceived as less than and incapable is solely because of the fact that they, women, are not afforded the same levels of education that are given to males leading to women using more primitive means to further their, societally created, frivolous goals of beauty and popularity, “they [civilized women] are, therefore, in a much worse condition than they would be in were they in a state nearer to nature…all their thoughts turn on things calculated to excite emotion and feeling, when they should reason.” (79). If education were given to these women who are clearly lacking in it,

Louis Bogan deals with the political issue of feminism as she criticizes women, the main target of the poem, as she writes about their shortcomings and passive state through irony. During her time, women were oppressed, marginalized and were ultimately silenced by their gender. Bogan criticizes the dullness and passionless state of women at that time in hope that they might change. Bogan begins to criticize by saying that women lack “wilderness” and that they are “content in the tight hot cell of their hearts” (1-4, Page 612). Although association with being wild is negative and unladylike, Bogan figuratively suggests that women have no adventure

Anna Barbauld’s “The Rights of Women” (1792), is an intricate poem that was written with a distinct perspective that many female poets would have taken during the Romantics era. The poem begins with a very passive aggressive yet persuasive invitation to take action on the way women are perceived. Barbauld’s feministic voice is heard throughout the entirety of the poem as she is trying to empower women with her passionate words, yet by reading the last two stanzas we realizes she contradicts her concept on her own feministic beliefs and thoughts. Reexamining the poem reveals a sarcastic tone other than the devotee-like tone that we had assumed was being interpreted as. One can conclude that Anna Barbauld's poem is not about feminism but is

Jiles argues that women learn to be inferior and are not born with an inherent desire to serve men. The speaker in this poem is much younger than

In the later stanzas of the poem, the narrator switches to her own perspective as a child watching the women go through the motions of washing day. Her naivety and ignorance strengthen Barbauld 's emotional appeal by providing a contrast to earlier descriptions of the wives’ view, but this perspective’s odd similarity to the men 's own makes the strongest impact on the reader. As the women worked, the narrator sought affection and food as she would on any other day; she didn 't understand why her mother and the other women brushed her aside in favor of working (Barbauld 58-65). Since she was a child, to her, the day was the same as any other. As she listened to her mother urge haste in the chores, she wondered as to the purpose of washing day (Barbauld 74-79). The ending lines capture the purpose of these stanzas: "The sports of children and the toils of men/ Earth, air, and sky, and ocean, hath its bubbles/ And verse is one of them — this most of all" (Barbauld 84-86). Per these lines, everything from the works of men to the play of children seems to have value, but the labor of women doesn’t in the