...think, wish with me, that they may every day grow more and more masculine. Bottom right, last row: The first object of laudable ambition is to obtain...human being, regardless of the distinction of sex. Observations on the State of Degradation: / wish to persuade women to endeavour to acquire strength,...

...questioned the "natural" roles of each sex, contending that for both the ultimate goal was the same: "the first object of laudable ambition is to obtain...human being, regardless of the distinction of sex". Without education, she felt, women could not contribute to social progress as mature individuals, and...

...docility of manners, supposed to be the sexual characteristics of the weaker vessel, I wish to shew that elegance is inferior to virtue, that the first...views should be brought to this simple touchstone. The education of women has, of late, been more attended to than formerly; yet they are still reckoned a...

...beings straining to be fulfilled in marriage. But for Wollstonecraft, 'elegance is inferior to virtue... the first object of laudable ambition is to obtain a character as a human being'. 44 Clearly the idea of virtue, and the antitheses of'manners' and 'morality', often juxtaposed in the...

...questioned the "natural" roles of each sex, contending that for both the ultimate goal was the same: "the first object of laudable ambition is to obtain...human being, regardless of the distinction of sex". Without education, she felt, women could not contribute to social progress as mature individuals, and...