Age Of Enlightenment Research Paper

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The Age of Enlightenment began in 1678, around the time that the Thirty Years War ended. This “era of reason” - so to speak - ended in 1789 with the French Revolution. This time period is well known for the decline of the Catholic Church, which in turn led to what today would be considered modern liberal ideas, one important one being equality (Age of Enlightenment). Mary Wollstonecraft, born April 27th, 1759 in London, England, took part in that revolution and the creation, and advancement, of the ideas of equality for women (Mary Wollstonecraft Biography). It was in this influential, and radical era, that her ideas flourished to help shape what today is thought to be the norm. Mary pushed boundaries with her beliefs about female equality. It was because of her progressive, and even radical thoughts during the Age of Enlightenment on women’s rights and equality between men and women that today, nearly 350 years later we have the Equal Rights Amendment, also known as the…show more content…
She established a school, had many published influential novels, and even became what could be considered “the Mother of Feminism”. In her most famous works, Mary wrote about, “Overcoming the ways in which women in her time are oppressed and denied their potential in society, with concomitant problems for their households and society as a whole (A Vindication of the Rights of Woman Summary)”. This novel revolutionized the idea that it is a lack of education that is the root cause of women being treated as subordinates. This book also made it clear that, in tandem with their lack of education, there was a lack of awareness of their state of oppression. At the time, this was considered a radical idea, one that had not been brought up ever before. Even other revolutionary Enlightenment writers, such as Rousseau, had not fathomed the idea of female

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