Wollstonecraft’s and Woolf’s accounts on women’s rights have many similar points since they both fought for the equality of rights for women. First, the traditions in the society hold that property ownership and inheritance were the first pillars of the liberation movement.
As for Wollstonecraft, she started fighting for women’s rights but could not succeed due to the belief that property ownership and inheritance were essential. However, the writer claimed that “the argument that men’s rights were unique” was unjust and promoted the acknowledgment of women’s entitlement to having equal rights.
Similarly, Virginia Woolf fought for equal rights for women through the perspective of education and literacy. The writer stated that an ordinary woman “could hardly read, could scarcely spell, and was the property of her husband”. Thus, both writers agreed that women’s rights were restricted.
However, the two writers had some differences in opinions regarding women’s rights. One of the contradictions was the approach to obtaining equality for women.
For Woolf, the achievement of equal rights was viewed from the perspective of education and literacy, which would open the possibilities for women in other spheres of life. However, Wollstonecraft envisioned a path toward emancipation through a general approach fighting for the rights to education, religion, owning property, and others at once.
According to the writer, she attributed inequality to men’s “considering female rather as women than human creatures” and their trying “to make them alluring mistresses than affectionate wives and mothers”. Thus, the writers would agree on the importance of women’s liberation but might have had different approaches to achieving such a goal.