A Vindication of the Rights of Woman Sex Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #7

This regard for reputation, independent of its being one of the natural rewards of virtue, however, took its rise from a cause that I have already deplored as the grand source of female depravity, the impossibility of regaining respectability by a return to virtue. (8.10)

Wollstonecraft thinks that there is one major reason why women focus more on their reputations than on their inner characters. It's because once you've lost your reputation, you can never get it back. In Wollstonecraft's world, people would never forgive a woman for having sex before marriage. In the eyes of the world circa 1792, that makes a woman "ruined."

Quote #8

But, with respect to reputation, the attention is confined to a single virtue—chastity. If the honour of a woman, as it is absurdly called, be safe, she may neglect every social duty. (8.20)

Wollstonecraft is annoyed by how much importance is placed on a woman's chastity (or her virginity). Wollstonecraft hates this focus because it basically tells a woman that she can be a horrible person or a good person and it doesn't much matter; all that matters is that she doesn't have sex.

Quote #9

Men are certainly more under the influence of their appetites than women; and their appetites are more depraved by unbridled indulgence and the fastidious contrivances of satiety. (8.23)

Wollstonecraft is convinced that men tend to indulge their sexual appetites much more often than women. In the long run this destroys men's sense of morality and discipline, but they're still allowed to get away with it because they're men.