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Exercise 4: Difference and Equality in the Age of Revolutions (due in class & electronically March 1)

Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) is the classic text with which most histories of Western feminism begin. This exercise asks you to compare Wollstonecraft's ideas about gender with those of three other writers: Jean-Jaques Rousseau (the enlightenment thinker to whom Wollstonecraft was responding), Eliza Southgate (an "ordinary" New England girl whose 1801-1802 letters to her male cousin offer a window on education in post-revolutionary America), and Christine de Pizan.

For each of the following questions, briefly state an answer in your own words, and identify the requested number of passages to support your case. Please introduce each passage with brief citation of the author and page number, e.g. (Wollstonecraft, 21), and include enough quoted text to make its relevance to the question clear. This will mean between 3-10 lines in most cases. If the passage is very long, you should use ellipses (…) to cut out extraneous material. If necessary, you may also paraphrase parts of it, using brackets [] to distinguish your own words from those in the original. Make sure that a reader of your exercise will be able to understand your passage without refering back to the original text.

Please use the electronic form to submit the exercise electronically and to print out two copies, one to give to Lori Creed in class on Thursday, March 1, and the other to use for your own reference.

  1. How do Rousseau and Wollstonecraft see nature (sometimes they use the word "natural") contributing to the behavior and roles of each sex? Identify an illustrative passage from each, and then briefly compare their views.

    1. Passage 1 [15 lines]

    2. Passage 2 [15 lines]

    3. Comparison [25 lines]

  2. Now look back at the selections you read from Christine de Pizan's Book of the City of Ladies, and identify a passage in which she talks about male or female "nature." (There are a lot of them.)

    1. Passage [15 lines]

    2. Briefly compare Pizan's argument to the one's you identified in Wollstonecraft and Rousseau. Does it resemble one more than the other? In what ways is it distinctive? [25 lines]

  3. Can you think of any instances where you agree with Rousseau and disagree with Wollstonecraft?  Are there any instances where they agree and you disagree? [25 lines]

    1. Identify at least one passage that helps you explain your answer. [15 lines]

  4. As you read Eliza Southgate's letters, ask yourself the following sets of questions. Answer one of them in the space provided, and provide a passage that illustrates your point.

    1. What types of education for women did Rousseau and Wollstonecraft advocate? Which types of education appear in Eliza Southgate's letters?

    2. How did Southgate spend her time? How do concepts from the other readings (like female reputation, coquetry, separate spheres, rights, and nature) appear in her letters?

      1. Paste the question you are addressing here: [5 lines]

      2. Answer: [25 lines]

      3. Passage: [15 lines]

  5. Additional comments or questions: [15 lines]