Questions for September 27 responses:

In five short essays of 150-200 words, respond to the following questions:

Note: I have provided six options; you only need to respond to five of them.

(1) Summarize the characteristics of the "companionate marriage" and how it differs from the traditional arranged marriage. Discuss some of the legal, political and/or educational changes in the status of women during the 17th and 18th century that Lawrence Stone describes in Chapter 8 of The Family, Sex and Marriage in England, 1500-1800.

(2) Describe and discuss the conventional "ideal" of femininity, or, what Wollestonecraft calls "mistaken notions of female excellence." at the end of her introduction to A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

(3) Summarize Wollestonecraft's critique of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's ideas in Chapters 1-III of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

(4) Describe the comparison that Wollestonecraft makes between the education and manners of women and those of military officers in Chapter II of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Discuss the rhetorical effect of this comparison.

(5) Discuss the importance of the concept of "Reason" for Wollestonecraft's argument against the subordination of women.

(6) Describe and discuss any questions you have in response to these readings that remain unanswered after you have read the texts.