Nature, capital 'N'.

Hello, World.

       Within the first sentence of Mary Wollstonecraft's introduction to A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, she mentions Nature and discusses its affect upon gender separation and inequality. She tells us that "either Nature has made a great difference between man and man, or the civilisation which has hitherto taken place in the world has been very partial" (1). She says that the reason, the explanation, for "a great difference" between both sexes is either that Nature has individualised both females and males and has made us so unique that we are naturally forced to be unequal, or as history has unravelled and civilisations have developed, we as humans, our personal opinions, beliefs and views, and the societies we belong to have shaped our attitudes to the other sex, usually of men towards women (1). By the way, notice that huge sentence; I'm clearly trying to imitate Wollstonecraft's writing style.
        Anyways, I want to investigate why Wollstonecraft has used a capital N every time she has written the word nature, such as: "this is the law of Nature" (2) and "Nature invariably produces certain effects" (4). In addition, I want to discuss the times where societal beliefs and actions have been blamed upon nature.
        As mentioned earlier, the word 'Nature' appears many times in the very first few pages. Nature, in its context, describes and categorises all actions and beliefs that seem innate and have become a norm. In fact, her treatment of Nature's definition is similar to socialisation; we can therefore say that Nature describes and categorises all actions and beliefs that seem innate and have become a norm in society. Wollstonecraft's tells us how the obvious gender differences between MOST men and women that nature has indeed created, such as the notion that men are stronger, more violent and wise, whilst women are more pure, intelligent, and caring, has led to stereotypes and discriminating norms. Man, being the stronger sex, is more likely to own a position of power or to be assigned an important task. Woman, on the other hand, is more likely to stay at home and take care of her family. Not only does nature assign specific roles to each gender, it strongly prevents each gender, more importantly women, to step out of their confinement and restricts equal opportunity. This has been seen throughout history, and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is one of the earliest written protest regarding gender issues.
     I wanted to try to fit all my thoughts and arguments on the affects of nature and society regarding female inequality in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in one blog post, but I haven't been able to. I have a lot to discuss! Therefore, I will be starting another sequence, which I will post very shortly. There, I will discuss more about female inequality that society and child upbringing have also severely affected. But for now,

Goodbye, World.