Women have always been striving to protect their civil and equality rights and achieve the results similar to men. Significant rise of equality rights movements was observed in second half of the eighteenth century with further breakouts in second hard of the nineteenth century.
Women, particular those occupying the procession of a writer or a poet, were struggling for the freedom of speech and independence from the male dominance, just as it was presented in their novels, essays, and poems. Specifically, both Mary Wollstonecraft, who lived in the times of French Revolution, and Virginia Woolf, a political activist and writer, strongly advocate the civil rights of women.
In their works called A Vindication of the Right of Woman and Professions of Women respectively, they express their vigorous desire to liberate women from the professional taboos to enter female authorship imposed by the male society and provide a new ideology and norms for women to pursue.
The messages delivered by both women are narrowed to the idea that fair sex should have the right to their personal opinion concerning the issues happened around them.
In particular, Virginia Woolf insists that writing and women is a dangerous mixture, specifically in the period of male domination; at the same time, it is quite reputable because it helps women understand their inner insights and needs. However, if women really want to indulge into this occupation, they should fight with the strongly imposed stereotypes, the so-called demons, which is the only way to write honestly.
Similar to Woolf, Wollstonecraft is operated by similar judgments because her main argument is premised on the necessity for delivering equal access to education for males and females, which can expand the boundaries of female authorship: “…the more understanding women acquire, the more they will be attached to their duty – comprehending it –for…their morals be fixed on the same immutable principles of that of man, no authority can make them discharge it in a virtuous manner” (Wollstonecraft 17).
In whole, both women strive to liberate themselves from the principles and morals of the male-dominated world.
Both Wollstonecraft and Woolf also seek to provide new educational frameworks for women because they believe it can enhance the society in general. They also admit that women chose to be subjected to male because it is much more comfortable to live and get along with their husbands. However, occupying no profession and taking no education deprive women of individuality and possibility to build plans and career perspectives for self-expression and professional growth.
With regard to this, Woolf emphasizes, “…before a woman can sit down to write a book without finding a phantom to be slain, a rock to be dashed again” (35). Interpreting this, women should overcome much more challenges in comparison with men whose dominance is predetermined historically.
In conclusion, both authors have greatly contributed to the development and enhancement of female authorships through representations of the women’s place in the male-prevailing society. In the texts at issue, they provide their conceptual frameworks expanding on their vision of education and civil rights for women as well as reasons for existing problems in these terms.
In addition, Woolf and Wollstonecraft are also concerned with presenting the connection between the writing and women within different periods, which allow to pursue the changes occurred to this problem.
Works Cited
Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. 1792. Reprinted with introduction, chronology, and bibliography by Charles W. Hagelman, Jr. NewYork: W.W. Norton and Company, 1967. Print.
Woolf, Virginia. Professions for Women. in Women and Writing. US: Women’s Press, 1979. Print.