Chyna Vazquez
September 16, 2020
ENG1121
Word Count: 386

  1. Wollstonecraft is writing this letter because she wants to change gender norms. She argues that women seem inferior to men and society seems to normalize it. Her main objective throughout her letter was the education of women. Wollstonecraft argues that women should be given the same education as men. She wants the recipient of the letter to break the stigmas about women and to understand that women have rights.
  2. After reading and analyzing Wollstonecraft’s letter, she would belong to the feminist discourse community. She mentions stereotypes on women by suggesting that their only purpose is “to please the man” (Wollstonecraft, p. 51). In other words, Wollstonecraft states that marriage is a source of oppression for women. She advocates for equality among both genders and the right to self-determination. The recipient appears to be outside of the feminist discourse community because she tries to persuade her audience by giving examples of gender inequality. She also contradicts the misogynistic view of women being inferior to men. 
  3. Quote 1: “I’ll leave it to you to decide in what light this joke places men and women; and in the meanwhile I’ll content myself with remarking that I can’t discover why females should always be degraded by being made subservient to love or lust, unless they are mortal” (Wollstonecraft, p. 18).

Identify the writing strategy you see Wollstonecraft using: Speaking to your audience

Explain why you find this useful, persuasive, or effective in some other way: Speaking to your audience is a useful way to get to know your audience and build a connection with them. It’s going to increase engagement, build conversation, and hopefully persuade your audience.

Quote 2: “The female sex’s superiority in •address is a very fair pay-back for their inferiority in •strength: without this ·superiority· woman would be man’s slave, not his companion. Her superior skill and ingenuity lets her preserves her equality, and governs man while she pretends to obey” (Wollstonecraft, p. 62).

Identify the writing strategy you see Wollstonecraft using: Persuasive 

Explain why you find this useful, persuasive, or effective in some other way: Persuading your audience is effective because it allows your audience to agree with you. Giving examples and elaborating on your main idea is useful to convince them. The use of tone adds emotion and keeps things interesting to persuade your audience.