In the third chapter, she begins to mount her argument against the misconception that women are inherently “weaker” (8) than men. In Chapter 2, she applies this argument specifically to women, stating that women are raised to practice “blind obedience” (24) and so often perpetuate their own oppression. She argues that the inequalities that derive from the wielding of power will always degrade man by demanding “blind submission” (16) from many towards a few. In Chapter 1, Wollstonecraft moves back from her principal argument to examine the wider issue of hierarchies and tyrannical power. She concludes that it is because men-and most women-believe that women are different beings entirely, and that they are inherently “the weaker vessel” (8). In the Introduction, Wollstonecraft examines why it is that society doesn’t treat women as man’s equal. Wollstonecraft suggests that to deny women what is being given to everyone else renders men nothing more than “tyrants” (4). Wollstonecraft opens by addressing a pamphlet recently published in France, in which French politician Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord argues for equal education for all, and yet omits women.
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