Analysis of women’s rights works: María Wollstonecraft and Mill
Throughout the course, by analyzing a wide variety of authors of various currents, ideals, beliefs and political parties we have been able to realize the various conceptions that each one has on freedom. But really what is freedom? Freedom according to the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) is "Natural Faculty that man has to act in one way or another, and not to work, so he is responsible for his actions".
In this essay I will develop the perception and freedom struggle of three different authors;Carlos Marx in the work "Manifesto of the Communist Party", Mary Wollstonecraft in the work "Vindication of Women’s Rights" and, finally, John Stuart Mill in the work "About Freedom".
To begin, I will analyze that it is the freedom for Carlos Marx and that it is what to end up to get to it. With respect to the main issues that are addressed throughout the work, we begin with the class struggle where the author proposes that since the existence of humanity is known, there has always been a struggle between the ruling class and theClass dominated to what the author refers to the following appointmentIn a word, oppressors and oppressed, always face to face, committed to an uninterrupted struggle, veiled sometimes and sometimes free and open in a struggle that leads at each stage to the revolutionary transformation of any regime or the extermination of both belligerent classes ”(2017, page. 51, Marx).
In this particular case, the author refers to the struggle between the bourgeoisie, that is, people with high positions and wealth and the proletariat, the working class or worker “the existence and predominance of the bourgeois class have as an essential condition theconcentration of wealth in the hands of a few individuals, the formation and constant increase of capital;And this, in turn, cannot exist without wage job (2017, p. 64, Marx). Both social classes are faced with a social struggle since the bourgeoisie does not wantworkers try to carry out a revolution and thus try to get them to be treated as machines in addition to being respected as people.
On the other hand, the author refers to the division of labor where a criticism is made to capitalism since under the gaze existing at the time, capitalism was the best option to maximize profits because the work is specialized by thethat surrenders in greater quantity in a shorter time and there is more offer and with this the workers are paid less and that is why communism strongly criticizes capitalism;for the exploitation for the benefit of the bourgeois.
Another criticism of the author towards the capitalist model is that cultural identity is lost due to large amounts of import and export which causes the country to lose the possibility of growing internally since an interdependence is created with the other countries.
With respect to communism, the author refers to this as a political movement that what he seeks is that there is equality and that the working class comes to power dethroning the bourgeoisie.
When reading "Manifesto of the Communist Party", one can realize that what the author seeks is to make a deep criticism of class inequality, to the violation of the rights of the working class in addition to criticizing the capitalist systemand argue why communism is better. When reflecting on the work I realized that freedom is an issue that is very present throughout the entire work.
The big question is why is it related to freedom? Although the author does not explicitly raise freedom, but refers to different topics on how the working class suffers by being dominated by bourgeois and states what should happen so that they can stop being subjected by the bourgeois, finally andAfter all, how to recover his freedom, which in this case is raised as a revolution where the proletariat takes power.
For the author, one of the ways to achieve this is through the change of capitalism for communism since as I mentioned before the capitalist system, the only thing that generates is that the rights of workers continue to be violated while the Communist Party requires theequality among all citizens regardless of the social class to which it belongs.
To continue with the essay, I will proceed to talk about Mary Wollstonecraft in the work "Vindication of women’s rights" and as this is related to the issue of freedom.
"Vindication of women’s rights" is a work in defense of equal rights and possibilities for women. The author analyzes a set of fragments of the time that they try mainly how the woman should act.
By way of summary, the fragments that the author questions and counterargument.
Regarding the issue of education, it is mainly said that women should not have access to education, in addition to men and women should be educated differently and separately since the way of educating must be based on functions and functions andduties that each one must fulfill in society. It is claimed that the man depends on it while the woman also depends on men so they must be educated according to them. It was proposed that the woman should have specific functions of wife and mother, so education was oriented towards that. Regarding this situation, Mary Wollstonecraft differed totally since she believed that the objective of education should be something for all independent of the sex to which it is belonging.
On the other hand, one of the fragments suggests that women must fulfill the function of caring and making their lives easier for men, that is, women are taught from girls to submit to men and obey all the orders ofmen without any independent allegation if the situation is unfair or not.
The author responds to these sayings in a sharp way disagree since the author is a faithful defender of the idea that women are totally capable of fulfilling the same functions as any man, in addition to the author disagree with it.Women as objects available to men.
When reading the work, I could realize that Mary Wollstonecraft disagree with all the sayings that violate the woman. While at that time it was something everyday to see the woman as the object and possession of the man, the author was completely against. How can you appreciate freedom in the work? The author defending women’s rights is finally struggling for their freedom, since it struggles for equal rights between women and man and also seeks to stop being treated as objects or property of men. So in the end what the author is looking for is the freedom of women, that they can do whatever they want, that they are not seen as something to “make their lives easier” to another person, but that they can express themselves in the formthey want.
Finally, I will cover the idea of freedom of the work "About freedom", written by John Stuart Mill. Where we talk about various issues such as freedom, tyranny of the majority, individualism, etc.
To start talking about the most important topic;freedom. John Stuart Mill talks about the fact that freedom is the search for its own good as long as the freedom of others is not intervened. The author proposes that the freedom of one ends when the freedom of the other is prevented or disturbed. The only option to intervene in the freedom of the other according to Mill is when there is a risk of life. "Social or civil freedom, that is, the nature and limits of power that society can legitimately exercise over the individual".(2018, page. 37, Mill). Mill with this appointment refers to the fact that freedom was a way to control the rulers who ruled in an contrary to what citizens wanted and thought.
According to Mill, the right to decide on ourselves and express our will through the Government, represents the majority. The tyranny of the majority was considered one of the evils of society since there is the possibility that some ideas of the community that are majority can disadvantage society, affecting it negatively.
Individualism is an issue that is very present in the work since, for the author, humans can use freedom to express their opinions regarding different topics. Normally the person who is able to use his individualism stands out since he uses his own freedom.
With regard to freedom of thought and expression, Mill states that the possibility of thinking, of discussing, although something may seem incorrect is always an enriching situation since, although one does not agree the same is learned. Regarding individuality, the author says that it is not necessary to get carried away by what others say if one does not agree, but must be debated if one has a different opinion since it can have a feedback of the situation tolater mind to correct the situation.
The author states that government intervention generates destruction to life in society as it transforms citizens into subjects. The evil of the State begins when the State instead of promoting activities, make citizens undergo these. What seeks is the least intervention of the State in citizens’ decisions.
In the work Freedom is a very present issue since for Mill Freedom is something necessary for happiness. In the book, freedom cannot be perceived as a definition, but refers to social freedom, which refers to the fact that the State does not intervene in individuals of individuals. To reach freedom Mill.
As a conclusion, the three works that analyze throughout this essay speak of freedom, each in a different way. "Manifesto of the Communist Party" does it in a more subtle way since it does not speak rightly of freedom but to do so that in this particular case, the working class can recover its freedom which was taken by the ruling class, thebourgeoisie.
Secondly, "vindication of women’s rights", neither does it speak of explicitly freedom, but in it various macho fragments are studied, to which the author analyzes them and then responds with what he thinks, in otherswords, argue because the fragments are wrong and why women must be totally free as well as men.
Finally, "about freedom", it is a work that with only the name we know what it will try. This work spoke of freedom explicitly. Talk about freedom of thought and discussion, where a call to express our own thoughts is made, in addition to defending our position, which generates freedom to seek our own good. He talks about individuality for the free development of our personality, which is related to the search for own happiness.
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