Early Feminist Literature

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses how Mary Wollstonecraft's 1792 work, "The Vindication of the Rights of Woman", shocked many of its early readers equally for what it said about men and women and for the reputation of the author. The paper further discusses the 1848 "Seneca Falls Women's Convention Declaration", prepared by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The paper analyzes how the document echoes many of Wollstonecraft's ideas, but had more credibility due to the women who created it and the style in which it was written. The paper examines Virginia Woolf, who also discusses many of Wollstonecraft's ideas. The paper explores Woolf's treatise, "A Room of One's Own", which discusses many of the same ideas about women's education and the relationship between men and women as does Wollstonecraft.

From the Paper:

"The Seneca Falls Declaration came from a meeting held in the summer of 1848 in upstate New York. This was one of the first meetings to address women's rights and issues. Stanton and fellow feminist and abolitionist, Lucretia Mott, organized the meeting after Mott had been refused permission to address the assembly at the world anti-slavery convention that had been held in London. This made the women questions the position of women in society in general and brought a variety of women and men together to discuss the issue and form this declaration."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions: Seneca Falls Convention, 1848. Modern History Source. Updated November 1998. 13 March 2006. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/senecafalls.html
• Wollstonecraft, Mary. The Vindication of the Rights of Woman. New York: Penguin,1985.
• Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One's Own. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1957.

More papers on Early Feminist Literature:

• Essay # 44945 : "The Early Feminist Writers"
• Analytical Essay # 33813 : "Sensibility and Freedom: Two Early Feminist Novels"
• Essay # 84865 : "Gender in Literature"

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