Quiz: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

All 40 questions. A perfect score earns the gold medal; 80% earns silver.

1. 1. Which class of women does Wollstonecraft say she chiefly addresses, and why?

   The labouring poor, because they suffer most The middle class, as being in the most natural state All classes equally, since sex alone matters The aristocracy, because they set the fashion for all the rest
2. 2. What does Dr Gregory advise his daughters to do with any learning they have?

   Share it only with their husbands after marriage Display it only in religious discussion at home Keep it a profound secret, especially from men Use it to educate their younger brothers at home
3. 3. Complete Wollstonecraft’s call in chapter 3: “It is time to effect a revolution in …”

   the laws of marriage national education the constitution female manners
4. 4. How does Wollstonecraft define independence in chapter 5?

   Owning landed property in her own name Possessing the right to vote for Parliament Earning one’s own subsistence Freedom from a husband’s authority in law
5. 5. According to chapter 2, what inevitably succeeds love in marriage?

   Jealousy and hatred Deeper passion Friendship or indifference Religious devotion
6. 6. What does chapter 11 give as the simple definition of the reciprocal duty between parent and child?

   Children must marry as their parents direct until they reach the age of thirty Parents owe their children nothing beyond food and shelter until they can earn a living Children owe their parents unconditional obedience throughout the whole of life The parent who tends helpless infancy may claim like care in feeble age
7. 7. In the plan of chapter 12, which school ought to be absolutely free and open to all classes?

   The afternoon school of needlework and housewifery for girls The day school for children aged five to nine The university college for the most promising pupils The boarding school for boys over twelve years of age
8. 8. According to the Advertisement, what would the promised second volume discuss?

   The laws relative to women and their duties The education of the poor in charity and Sunday schools The history of women in antiquity and the Middle Ages A reply to her critics in the reviews and periodicals
9. 9. Besides fortune-tellers who cast nativities, which fashionable impostors does section I of chapter 13 attack?

   Magnetisers who pretend to work miraculous cures Methodist preachers who hold field meetings in the open air Freemasons who claim secret knowledge of ancient mysteries Alchemists who promise to turn base metals into gold
10. 10. Smith’s description of which group does Wollstonecraft apply to women in chapter 4?

    Labourers in manufactures and the trades People of rank and fortune Soldiers and sailors in time of peace Merchants and tradesmen of the great towns
11. 11. What argument, used in England, does Wollstonecraft say the French also use to justify the oppression of woman?

    Prescription Public utility Physical weakness The authority of Scripture
12. 12. According to the Rousseau passage she quotes, to what should women’s education always be relative?

    To their religion To their bodily strength To their social rank To men
13. 13. In her concluding reflections, from what does Wollstonecraft expect “the most salutary effects tending to improve mankind”?

    A revolution in female manners A reform of the House of Commons The abolition of the established church A revolution in the French manner
14. 14. How does chapter 12 explain Rousseau’s attempts to degrade women in general?

    As a result of his strict Calvinist upbringing in Geneva As an imitation of the Greek philosophers As a way to justify his affection for Theresa, whom he could not raise to her sex’s level As a reaction against the learned ladies of the Paris salons, who had mocked his manners
15. 15. Whom does Wollstonecraft quote in chapter 11 on children who lose their vigour and industry when their spirits are broken by too strict a hand?

    Dr. Gregory Rousseau Dr. Johnson Mr. Locke
16. 16. What advice of Dr Gregory’s to his daughters does Wollstonecraft single out as recommending dissimulation?

    To marry only for money and a settled establishment in life Not to dance with spirit, lest men draw conclusions To read novels in secret and hide them from their father To avoid church attendance
17. 17. Why, in chapter 6, are early associations of ideas more harmful to women than to men?

    Women marry too late to change Men are educated at universities Men’s business and employments break such associations Women’s memories are naturally stronger and more retentive
18. 18. On what condition, according to chapter 7, will women cease to be immodest?

    When women are given the vote When dress is regulated by law When men are more chaste When convent schools are reopened
19. 19. How does chapter 10 open its account of parental affection?

    As perhaps the blindest modification of perverse self-love As an instinct common to all animals and so beyond all criticism As the purest and most disinterested of all the natural affections As a feeling far stronger and steadier in fathers than in mothers
20. 20. What animal does Wollstonecraft use to illustrate how dependence becomes inherited “beauty”?

    Sheep that lost their horns Caged songbirds Horses broken to the bridle and the bit Spaniels, whose ears came to droop
21. 21. In chapter 1, what is the answer to “In what does man’s pre-eminence over the brute creation consist?”

    The passions Virtue Speech Reason
22. 22. What does Wollstonecraft name in chapter 8 as the “one grand cause” of female weakness and depravity?

    The reading of novels Want of religious instruction Want of chastity in men Early marriage arranged by parents
23. 23. Which of these occupations does chapter 9 not suggest for women?

    Managing a shop Regulating a farm Physicians Officers in the army
24. 24. Whom does Wollstonecraft call “the woman of the greatest abilities” England has produced?

    Catharine Macaulay Madame de Genlis Hester Piozzi Hester Chapone
25. 25. According to the opening of chapter 9, from what do most of the evils and vices of the world flow “as from a poisoned fountain”?

    The respect paid to property The education of women The neglect of religion and morals The growth of commerce
26. 26. Answering Madame de Staël’s praise of Rousseau, what does Wollstonecraft say women should contend for?

    Control of their dowries Equality, not empire Political office Empire over men’s hearts
27. 27. Why does Wollstonecraft say a standing army is incompatible with freedom?

    Because its soldiers are drawn from the poorest and most ignorant classes Because it is commanded by foreigners Because subordination and rigour are the sinews of military discipline Because it costs too much in taxes
28. 28. What “hint”, which she expects may excite laughter, does Wollstonecraft drop in chapter 9?

    That women ought to have representatives in government That marriage ought to be abolished That women ought to serve as soldiers That women ought to be ordained as clergy of the Church
29. 29. What is the “natural inference” that Wollstonecraft says she has had in view throughout?

    That women should be educated only in the arts of pleasing That boys should be sent away to boarding schools as early as their parents can afford That girls should be educated only at home by their mothers That to improve both sexes, they should be educated together, at home and at school
30. 30. To what does the Introduction compare women whose strength has been sacrificed to beauty?

    Dolls dressed up by children for display Statues set up on a pedestal to be admired Flowers planted in too rich a soil Birds kept in a gilded cage
31. 31. In the Rousseau passage quoted in chapter 8, what is opinion said to be among women?

    The servant of reason The grave of virtue The throne of virtue The enemy of chastity
32. 32. Why, according to chapter 9, would a better education and wider employment benefit women?

    It would allow them to compete with men for seats in Parliament It would free them from the duties of motherhood It would save many from common and legal prostitution, and from marrying for support It would make them more attractive to husbands of rank and fortune in the marriage market
33. 33. How does Wollstonecraft answer Rousseau’s warning that educated women will have less power over men?

    She says power should be equally divided She wants women to have power not over men but over themselves She says women should renounce all power She says that educated women will in fact gain more power over men
34. 34. How does Wollstonecraft contrast her view with Rousseau’s and the optimists’?

    Rousseau says all is wrong, she that all is right All three agree that evil is the work of man Rousseau says all will be right, she that all was right originally Rousseau: all was right; others: all is right; she: all will be right
35. 35. In what sense does Wollstonecraft say she would join the cry against “masculine women”?

    If it means their study of the sciences and of philosophy If it means their wish to vote If it means their refusal to marry If it means their ardour in hunting, shooting and gaming
36. 36. Whom does Wollstonecraft give as an example of a modest man who accepted a great command?

    The Duke of Marlborough Lafayette Oliver Cromwell George Washington
37. 37. Which work does Wollstonecraft quote at length in the first section of chapter 5?

    Rousseau’s Confessions Rousseau’s Discourse on the Origin of Inequality Rousseau’s account of Sophia in Émile Rousseau’s Social Contract, on the general will
38. 38. To whom is A Vindication of the Rights of Woman dedicated?

    Condorcet, advocate of women’s citizenship and of public education Edmund Burke, author of the Reflections on the Revolution in France Richard Price, dissenting minister at Newington Green Talleyrand, late Bishop of Autun
39. 39. How does Wollstonecraft describe Fordyce’s portrait of the ideal wife who studies her husband’s humours?

    As the portrait of a house slave As the portrait of a saint As the portrait of a coquette As the portrait of a Spartan mother
40. 40. What does Wollstonecraft say of meek wives in chapter 10?

    They are usually the most learned women They are the only women fit to educate daughters They make the best mothers They are, in general, foolish mothers