Question

Read the facts about Mary Wollstonecraft.

· Lived during the time of the American and French Revolutions

· Published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792 (in response to a French government report advocating that women should be educated only for household duties)

· Was embraced by twentieth-century women’s rights advocates

Now read the passage from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

In the present state of society, it appears necessary to go back to first principles in search of the most simple truths, and to dispute with some prevailing prejudice every inch of ground.

Based on the facts, which inference about the passage is justified?

Answer 1

Based on the given facts, one can infer that the passage is about women's rights and feminism. While looking at the facts closely one can see how Mary Wollstonecraft wanted women to be educated but only enough to look after her household. Here, she is further stereotyping them and saying that household is a woman's responsibility and that is the space that a woman is supposed to remain in. She doesn't want the woman to be educated and come out of the domestic sphere to make a career of her own. This is the prejudice that is being talked about in the passage. In such a context, the passage could be inferred and interpreted as (the same passage can have multiple inferences) the need for today's feminists to go back and look at the emergence of feminism and then problematise and question prejudices that were present since the beginning of women's rights.

Answer 2

The answer to the question is By going against the most favorable principles, Wollstonecraft had been one of the primary proponents of the women’s rights.

Due to the Wollstonecraft's movement, a lot of the women got motivated to try to attain education in order to realize their true life value.

This had led to a large number of female graduates who had the usable skill which proved to be very useful in the workforce.