Kim's 1st entry
Deroin & Roland's "Letter" was very powerful for me because it reminds me of how much women have suffered in order to gain equal rights. Things that today we take for granted; like the right to vote and be employed. These women were imprisoned for demanding equality or *political conspiracy*. Women have been beaten and slandered and killed in order to keep them in a submissive position in society. Their opposition was far more violent but they believed in their cause and found support in each other.
In Wollstonecraft's second chapter I was really struck by the comparison to women and soldiers. Simply that they are both undereducated and know little of the world except for what their limited role in society should be. By not educating either both women and soldiers do not know to question their roles. It is a brainwashing - constantly taught to be obedient, either to your family or to your country. I had never thought of it quite that way before but it makes a lot of sense. Society needs both of these roles to be fulfilled. It needs soldiers to protect the country and in a society like today where young men are educated to know the alternatives to soldiering/patriotism/war and death; we have a smaller force. The demand for women and motherly/wife/servant positions seems to be the same. Men must have believed that society and the family structure would break down if women were educated and would reject their roles as wife and mother. Hence society tried to keep them dominated and unaware of the alternatives. Not knowing about options in life keeps women and soldiers content with their current roles.