Mary Wollstonecraft and the Radical Notion That Women Think Too
Mary Wollstonecraft’s most important philosophical view is that women and men share the same rational nature, and that this rational equality grounds their moral and social equality. Across her works, she argues that reason is what gives human beings their dignity and moral worth. In A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), she insists that the moral and intellectual subordination of women is not a fact of nature but the result of social conditioning that discourages the use of reason (Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman).
Wollstonecraft’s argument builds on broader Enlightenment ideas that treated reason as the defining feature of humanity. For philosophers such as Descartes and Locke, reason distinguished humans from animals and made knowledge, self-awareness, and moral responsibility possible. This idea also shaped moral philosophy in the eighteenth century: Kant would later describe reason as the basis of human dignity, since only rational beings can act according to moral law. Wollstonecraft accepts this philosophical background but applies it more consistently than many of her predecessors. If all humans are rational beings, then women, as human beings, must share this moral faculty. To treat them as naturally inferior is to contradict the very principle of reason that grounds equality itself.
For Wollstonecraft, reason is not only a mental power but also the foundation of virtue. Virtue, in her view, depends on understanding and reflection rather than obedience or emotion. A person acts morally only when they grasp why something is right and choose it freely. In Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787), she observes that girls are often trained to seek approval rather than understanding, learning to please rather than to think. Such training produces what she calls “artificial weakness”: women appear irrational only because they are never taught to reason (Wollstonecraft, Thoughts on the Education of Daughters). This is not a difference of nature but of cultivation. Rational equality, then, is not merely a claim about what women are, but about what they could become if given the same opportunities for moral and intellectual development as men.
Education is central to her argument because it is the means through which reason is strengthened and virtue formed. Wollstonecraft envisions schools where boys and girls learn together and develop habits of critical thought, moral reflection, and self-discipline. Education allows individuals to move beyond habit and imitation toward rational judgment. When denied education, women are left dependent on others’ opinions, and dependence corrupts both character and society. Rational education, by contrast, prepares all citizens, both men and women alike, to act as free and responsible moral agents (Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman).
Her insistence on equality through reason directly challenges the influential views of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau argued that women’s virtues were naturally different from men’s and that their education should cultivate charm, gentleness, and the art of pleasing. Wollstonecraft calls this a false system of education because it mistakes social utility for moral truth. To teach women that virtue consists in obedience or beauty, she argues, is to degrade both sexes: it turns women into objects of admiration and men into tyrants. True virtue must have a single, rational standard for all humans, since moral principles are universal. By confronting Rousseau’s vision of femininity, Wollstonecraft exposes how claims about natural difference often serve to justify dependence and deny reason’s universality (Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman).
The link between rational and moral equality also shapes Wollstonecraft’s political thought. In A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790), written in response to Edmund Burke, she defends the idea that legitimate authority rests on reason rather than tradition or inherited status. Moral and political hierarchy are alike unjustified when they rest on prejudice instead of principle. By extending this reasoning to gender, Wollstonecraft shows that patriarchal dependence is as irrational as aristocratic privilege. Both rest on the same mistake: valuing custom over moral reason. Social order, she contends, should reflect the moral equality of all rational beings, not the accidents of birth or gender (Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Men).
Her later writings extend these ideas to the personal realm. In Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (1796), she reflects on independence and self-reliance as conditions for moral development. True virtue, she suggests, requires freedom not just from political oppression but also from being ruled by dependence and the need for approval. This theme connects her moral philosophy to her vision of human flourishing: rational equality allows for genuine friendship, love, and civic participation because it replaces domination with mutual respect (Wollstonecraft, Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark).
By grounding equality in reason, Wollstonecraft expands the scope of Enlightenment philosophy. Where many of her contemporaries treated women as exceptions to the moral law, she shows that reason’s universality must include them or lose its coherence. Equality, in her account, is not a matter of opinion or social convenience but a moral necessity rooted in human nature itself. Denying women the chance to cultivate reason is not only unjust, it undermines the rational foundation of morality and society. In this way, Wollstonecraft turns the Enlightenment’s own principles back on its exclusions, arguing that to be consistent, the age of reason must also be the age of equality.
In conclusion, Wollstonecraft’s argument for the rational equality of women unites moral psychology, political theory, and social critique. She begins from the Enlightenment view that reason is the defining human faculty and draws out its implications for virtue, education, and justice. Women’s equality follows not from opinion or utility but from their shared capacity for rational and moral action. By developing this argument across her works, Wollstonecraft demonstrates that equality is the logical and moral consequence of reason itself, a claim that remains foundational to modern discussions of human rights and moral agency.
Glossary of Key Terms
Reason – The ability to think, reflect, and make judgments about what is right or true. For Wollstonecraft, reason is what makes humans moral beings and the basis for equality between men and women.
Virtue – Choosing to act rightly because one understands why it is right. Wollstonecraft believes real virtue comes from reflection and reason, not habit, emotion, or social approval.
Moral Agency – The capacity to act from one’s own understanding of right and wrong. When women are denied education, they lose the chance to develop this ability fully.
Equality – The shared moral worth of all people who can reason. For Wollstonecraft, equality means that men and women both have the same potential for virtue and judgment, even if their experiences differ.
Dependence – Relying on others for approval or direction instead of thinking for oneself. Wollstonecraft sees dependence as the main obstacle to freedom and moral growth.
Education – The process that develops reason and character. Equal education is essential for forming independent, thoughtful, and virtuous individuals.