The traces of Wollstonecraft's concept Essay

Even among women there are levels of oppression that were facilitated by male concepts. Therefore it is almost as if women are tools rather than humans, that is to say the life of women are determined by the reasoning of men because women are forced to make their bodies weak so that they could be protected by men. However protection is supposed to by an unconditional right that every human must be entitled to. For protection to be seen as a responsibility of men rather than a right of all, women are then required to appreciate the effort of men in protection them. This appreciation includes reproduction. Therefore in short some rights of women are seen as men's responsibility while the others are also seen as gestures of appreciation (Wollstonecraft, 1792 74). This kind of situation only makes women be classified as 'slaves' of men.
In the contemporary documentation of human rights by authorities such as the United Nations, traces of Wollstonecraft's concept could be found in the Vienna Declaration but the fact is that the modifications applied in that Declaration defined human rights of women in two preambles which included
i) The rights that women share with men such as education and nourishment
ii) The rights of women to be free from vices based on gender discrimination such as rape, sexual slavery, forced marriage and so on (UN Charter, 1993).
Her advocacy towards these two categories came in the form of her support for girl child education and also her support for formulation of laws that could regulate prostitution, allow abortion for the sake of rape, control the spread of STDs and abolish forceful marriages.
Other contemporary scholars who have supported the views of Wollstonecraft on the rights of women include Ruth Abbey, Noma Clarke, Virginia Supirio and Catherine Mackinnon. Referring back to the three factors that we mentioned earlier on, the reasoning of women is no lesser than that of men but it is always short of use because of the fact women are denied the basic opportunities such as education so their reasoning fails to develop.
One of the criticisms that was levelled against Wollstonecraft was the act of singling herself out of her own gender. In her books, she used the word "them" to refer to females, making it seem like she could not relate to the problems of her own gender. It was also noticed that there was a huge element of emotion in the writing pattern of Wollstonecraft which made her deviate most times from the philosophical discourse. Anca Vlasopolos also pointed out the fact that Wollstonecraft gave in too much into discussion on men. Another criticism that could be considered as an insult to women is the indications that she gave in patronizing her own gender again. She stressed so much on the failure of women to show enlightenment level. Wollstonecraft failed to recognized women as her kind in her fight for equal rights. It was almost as if she was a man fighting for women's rights.