Destined Fate or False Design

What did men believe about women? This is an important question the author, Mary Wollstonecraft, asks in her piece, “Pernicious Effects Which Arise from the Unnatural Distinctions Established in Society.” Wollstonecraft declares that in order to become liberated women, they must first become independent of men’s ideas of who they are. Are women truly fated by their biology, or is it the comfort of being idolized that they cherish and therefore except their role of devotee? Can a woman’s destiny or independent choice be of a housewife? In reflection of this passage, it is evident that women have been limited due to a role that man designed, but men are not all to blame.

Let’s focus on the opportunities women were denied to liberate themselves from man. Economically they have to have the freedom to create their own lives. Unfortunately, since the dawn of time, women have been denied to own property until the latest century. Women were dependent on men for financial support. Kings of countries were often sought out for husbands for leaders of other empires not because they were the best lovers or men of integrity or morals but rather because they were wealthy and with wealth came power and dependence of the weak. It is only natural that women would lean towards money over love because they were dependent on their husband’s wealth. Money and property were only a starting limiting factor for women in their struggle.

More importantly, one of the most fundamental limiting factors held up against women was their own inability to fight for equality as a whole. A few strong women can night fight a battle for silent women. The fact that women are fated by their biology becomes a double edge sword. Yes they are in fact idolized for their beauty and often held as muses for men, but because of their dependence on their beauty in order to manipulate men, women often neglect the actual self inside of them. It became easy for women to fall into a role they were already provided and because they became so comfortable batting their eyes and bashfully smiling there was no need to develop into their own self identity because men already painted and sculpted them.

Lacking a real education became a crucial element in the prevention of their roles they could fulfill or prepare for. Because being idolized already presented women with a purpose, there was no need to further develop them in term of self because they had no inspiration to what their real capabilities were. A creature held inside a pen will never know what the world holds if they never venture