Mary Wollstonecraft and Malala Yousafzai: Time's Up for Gender Injustice

Born to wash clothes, take care of the kids, make sure there is food on the table for the family and please their husband were the expectations for women. Women have been trained by society to serve their husband and family. Mary Wollstonecraft in her writing, “Of the Pernicious Effects Which Arise from the Unnatural Distinctions Established in Society” argues that women are capable of doing so much more than house duties. She believes women are not inferior to men; women can be just as intellectual as them. Wollstonecraft was a writer from the 18th century who fought for women's rights; to this day, women around the world are fighting to get the same respect as men. Malala Yousafzai in her book, I Am Malala is an example of women in Pakistan being robbed of their education, denied freedom of expression, and forced into being dependent on men. Malala and Wollstonecraft are very similar women, in which they both come from harsh environments where women are despised. Malala builds upon Wollstonecraft ideas by bringing forth the reality of women being seen as inferior to men to this day. Malala is the more effective writer because she uses logos, ethos, and pathos to get the world's attention that women are living in enslavement. While Wollstonecraft uses more of a symbolic and metaphorical style to tell the readers how unjust the women are being treated.

Mary Wollstonecraft, the author of the essay “Of the Pernicious Effects Which Arise from the Unnatural Distinctions Established in Society”, addresses many different issues with the 18th century. Wollstonecraft notes that wealth ruins moral excellence of women because they become ornaments on a Christmas tree. They don't have to cook, clean the house, or take care of the kids because they can afford maids to do their house duties. Wollstonecraft believed that women should be able to strive for themselves and be independent but because women are only seen to have the role of pleasing and breeding it makes nearly impossible for women to break from the chains society that holds them. Wollstonecraft uses strong visual examples and symbolic language to effectively persuade an audience that criticizes women. She brings attention to the British Empire that, “slavery which chains the very soul of woman, keeping her forever under the bondage of ignorance”. Wollstonecraft defines how women are in a mental state of slavery; they have been born into a society, which enforces limitations on women. For example, women not being able to qualify to work in certain career fields, such as in medicine or politics, due to the lack of education. This makes it hard for women to be independent of men because it would be a vigorous task for women to find a job that will support her with simple living cost by giving herself a roof over her head and daily bread. One can see how the chains symbolize the limitations that hold women down from exerting herself vigorously. This underlines that women should not be deprived of their natural rights but given the same opportunity as men like education. Wollstonecraft also uses metaphoric language when she illustrates how African American was used to please white men as to how women as well are being used to please men; “Is one half of the human species, like the poor African slaves, to be subject to prejudices that brutalize them, when principles would be a surer guard, only to sweeten the cup of man?”. Wollstonecraft was metaphorically saying that women in her time are similar to African Americans, whose only role in life was to obey and follow how society portrays them, live. This is noteworthy because slaves were considered property, not people; they were also very looked down upon and treated poorly. This comparison that Wollstonecraft uses about slaves and women really makes the reader reconsider how their wives and mothers are seen in society. Wollstonecraft was very bold for speaking out about the mistreatment that was placed on women because many criticized the way she viewed women's roles in society should be like. One can compare Malala Yousafzai to Wollstonecraft since they are women who are standing up for the natural rights that women are entitled.

Malala Yousafzai, the girl who spoke out about the brutality happening in Pakistan, brought attention to the nations through the media by pointing out the injustice that was happening to women. Yousafzai was born in Pakistan and not only witness the hostile environment women lived in but also experienced the discrimination women faced. This builds her credibility by showing the reader how Yousafzai does not research on the unjust of women in Pakistan but has lived amongst the women who have been discriminated. This is significant because the reader gets a first-person view of what Yousafzai saw, felt, and thought about the unjust occurrences to women. In her book, “ I am Malala” Yousafzai wastes no time in telling the reader how from birth girls are adulterated in Pakistan society but when boys are born, “ rifles are fired in celebration of a son, while daughters are hidden away behind a curtain”. Yousafzai uses pathos in these quotes by making the reader feel empathy because a girl is not welcomed in the Pakistani culture rather they are concealed as if the parents are ashamed of having a girl. This articulates how women are looked down upon because of the roles they have to follow in Pakistan, which is breeding and feeding. This reminds the reader that inequality for women still exists today in Pakistan. Women are very limited in what they can choose as a profession; they can’t even walk on the streets alone. On top of that, they have to wear shalwar kameez and be covered up from head to toe every day. This emphasizes how hard it is for a woman to be independent of men because they do not have the same opportunities and liberty as men have. Yousafzai explains how a group of five religious parties named the Muttahida Majlis e-Amal wanted to abolish the women’s face from society. Yousafzai points out,“ MMA activists launched attacks on cinemas and tore down billboards with pictures of women or blacked them out with paint. They even snatched female mannequins from clothing shops”. This exemplifies that women in Pakistan are not seen as humans rather as an object or property. This is significant because women are not any better than a stray dog on the street that can easily be picked up and taken away. Not only are women seen as objects but they are also blamed for catastrophes that happen in Pakistan. Yousafzai claims, “Mullahs from the TNSM preached that the earthquake was a warning from God. They said it was caused by women’s freedom and obscenity”. Yousafzai uses logos in this quote by introducing a Pakistani militant group that is known to fight violently for their objective to enforce Sharia law in the country. With this quote, one can see that the TNSM, also known as the Movement for Law Enforcement of Islamic, are taking advantages of natural catastrophes to instill fear in the Pakistani citizens. This is noteworthy because the Law Enforcement of Islamic wants to manipulate citizens into thinking women who don’t follow their role in life, such and preparing food, giving birth to children and staying away from schools, will bring catastrophes to their lands because women were solely being disobedient. From these two analyses, one can see how Malala Yousafzai and Mary Wollstonecraft both want to bring attention to the injustice that women have been facing but in different rhetorical styles.

The difference between Malala Yousafzai and Mary Wollstonecraft are the ways they brought up the issues of the injustice brought upon women. Yousafzai introduces her family and many aspects of her life. In these the first chapter of the book, Yousafzai builds on her credibility by illustrating her own first-hand experiences in Pakistan. On the contrary Wollstonecraft right off the bat starts using symbolic language by illustrating how even the most “polished society” has venomous serpent lurking around and sultry air. One other example of how these two authors differ is how Yousafzai gives nothing but cold facts and even goes to the extreme by providing photos in her book that depicted the debris of a school that has been bombed down and people getting publicly whipped. On the other hand, as mentioned before, Wollstonecraft compares the mistreatment that has been placed upon the African American by white men to the maltreatment that women have received from society. From these two examples, one can see how both women get the same message across with different rhetorical styles.

Even with both Malala Yousafzai and Mary Wollstonecraft powerful writings the world somehow keeps making the same mistake of mistreatment of many different races, sex, and religion. These two writings really make different parts of the world consider how women are being treated. Some parts of the world will consider not taking for granted how well they are respected, other parts of the world might get inspired to not stay silent to the mistreatment women are experiencing. The most noteworthy part of the essay is to inform how injustice is still happening to women and society must speak up.