《女权辩护：关于政治和道德问题的批评》（英语：A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects，下文简称《女权》），是18世纪英国女权主义者玛丽·沃斯通克拉夫特于1793年出版的著作，是女权主义哲学最早的一批作品之一。在这本书中，沃斯通克拉夫特对18世纪的那些试图否认女性教育的教育和政治理论家进行回击。她认为女性的教育程度应当相称于她们的社会地位。她主张国家必须要有女性，因为女性教育了她们的子女，且因为她们能够成为丈夫们的“伴侣”，而不仅仅是妻子。沃斯通克拉夫特还主张：作为人类的女性应当享有与男性相同的基本权利，而不应被视作是社会的装饰品或是婚姻交易中的财产。[1]
尽管沃斯通克拉夫特的确呼吁了特别是在生活领域，譬如道德上的性别平等，但她并没有明确地指出男女是平等的。因此，她在性别平等上的这种暧昧态度让后人很难将她归入现代女权主义者的行列，尤其是当她在书中提到的文字与观点对她来说是遥不可及之时。尽管现今通常都以为《女权》一书在当时并不受到欢迎，但这是现代人的一种误解，其建基于的是这样的一种观点：认为沃斯通克拉夫特的一生都受尽谩骂，就如同1798年威廉·戈德温出版《女权辩护作者传（英语：Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman）》后的情况一样。而实际上，《女权》在1793年发行第一版时已十分畅销，有一位现代传记学家还认为“也许是（沃斯通克拉夫特）那个世纪最有新意的一本书”。[2]
《女权辩护》一书是在法国大革命的动荡背景下写成的。大革命在英国引发了诸多论争：在现今多称为《革命论战（英语：Revolution Controversy）》的这本小册子中，英国的政治评论家们从代议式的政府讨论到了人权，讨论到了政教分离。沃斯通克拉夫特首次加入这场论战是她在1790年发表的《男权辩护（英语：A Vindication of the Rights of Men）》，该书是为了回击埃德蒙·伯克《对法国大革命的反思》（1790）而作的[3]。在伯克的《反思》中，他批评了众多英国思想家与作家对早期的法国大革命抱持欢迎的观点。虽然众人将大革命视作是1688年英国限制王权的光荣革命的类似情况，伯克却指出，恰当的历史比喻应该是1642年到1651年的英国内战，其间英国国王查理一世在1649年被处决。他认为法国大革命是一场推翻合法政府的暴力行为，认为平民没有权力去反抗他们的政府，因为文明是社会与政治共识的成果；文明的传统不能被频繁地变更——否则将会导致政治混乱。在《反思》一书出版六周后，沃斯通克拉夫特发表了《男权》：其中的一个关键论点是权力不能基于传统；她认为，权力的赋予是出于合理与公正的理由，而不应考虑它们在传统中的基础。[4]
在《女权》一书中，沃斯通克拉夫特的一个中心论点是：女性应该受到理性教育，以给予她们向社会作出贡献的机会。在18世纪，无论是教育哲学家还是行为手册（英语：conduct book）的作者，都认为女性不具备理性或抽象的思维。他们认为女性太易受到感性的影响，并太难达致清晰的思维。沃斯通克拉夫特与凯瑟琳·麦考利（英语：Catharine Macaulay）和赫斯特·沙蓬（英语：Hester Chapone）这些女性改革家们一道，主张女性毫无疑问地具备理性思维的能力，并从而应当受到教育。在她的行为手册《女教论》（1787年）中，在童书《真实生活的原创故事（英语：Original Stories from Real Life）》（1788年）中，以及后来的《女权》中，沃斯通克拉夫特均指出了这一点。[18]
在《女权》中，沃斯通克拉夫特针对虚伪泛滥的感性（特别是当时的女性带有的）进行了十分严厉的批评。她认为屈从于感性的女性“就连瞬息而逝的情感也会使得她们的内心波动不已”；因为这样的女性是“她们的感官的牺牲品”，她们便不能理性地进行思考。[44]实际上，她们不但对自己造成了伤害，她们还对整个文明造成了伤害：她们不能让文明走向高雅，而会让文明走向毁灭。但沃斯通克拉夫特的理性与感性并不独立；她认为它们应相辅相成。对沃斯通克拉夫特以及18世纪的重要哲学家休谟来说，激情是其所有理性的基础。[45]这是沃斯通克拉夫特在她的整个写作生涯中都反复提到的一个主题，特别是在小说《玛丽：一篇小说（英语：Mary: A Fiction）》（1788）与《玛丽亚：女人的受罪（英语：Maria: or, The Wrongs of Woman）》中。
一位著名的沃斯通克拉夫特学者克劳迪娅·约翰逊（英语：Claudia L. Johnson (scholar)）曾将《女权》一书称为“共和宣言”[60]。约翰逊认为，沃斯通克拉夫特有着十七世纪新教徒的共和思想，并且强调男女性的角色必须分明。[61]她认为，在沃斯通克拉夫特的立场看来，“趋向女性化的男性是社会根基被削弱的原因”[62]。也就是说，如果任由男性拥有坚强与多愁善感的个性时，女性的地位将变得模糊不清，并难以在社会上立足。[63]因此，约翰逊认为，沃斯通克拉夫特对女权至大的主张，亦抱持反对的意见。
与前作《男权（英语：A Vindication of the Rights of Men）》一样，《女权》在许多方面反映出了中产阶级的世界观。沃斯通克拉夫特将处于中间阶层的中产阶级称作是“最能表现出（其）本来面目”[67]的人。她亦频繁地赞美谦逊与勤奋，以及在当时与中产阶级相联系的美德。[68]除了站在中产阶级的立场上呼吁中产阶级的精神外，沃斯通克拉夫特还对富有阶层进行了抨击，批评他们用她使用的相同论点去反对女性。她指出，富人是“浮华、邪恶和虚荣的，”[69]称“那些懦弱而虚伪的人们超出了她们同胞的正常需求和情感，她们以早熟的矫揉造作的方式摧毁了惟一的道德基础，并且在整个社会中传布了腐化堕落的不良风气”[70]。
沃斯通克拉夫特没有完成《女权》的第二部，尽管她的丈夫威廉·戈德温在她的《遗稿集》中发表了她生前写好的“心得”，其中的内容“绝大部分都已经打算纳入《女权辩护》的第二部”[88][89]。不过，绝大多数的学者都认为，她的最后一部小说《玛丽亚：女人的受罪（英语：Maria: or, The Wrongs of Woman）》是《女权》一书的小说化续章。而这部在她生前同样没有完成的小说，亦包含在了后来出版的《遗稿集》里。[90]
当《女权》在1792年出版第一版后，《分析评论》、《综合杂志》、《文学杂志》、《纽约杂志》与《每月评论》这些当时的杂志都给予了其正面的评价。但是，直至今日，《女权》亦不能免于恶评。[91]在出版第一版后没隔多久，第二版也于同一年付印出版。另外，《女权》当时在美国也出现有几个版本，而且还被翻译成了法文。泰勒将其称赞为“一场直接的成功”[92]。此外，玛丽·海斯（英语：Mary Hays）与玛丽·鲁滨逊（英语：Mary Robinson (poet)）等作家还在他们自己的作品中特别地提到了沃斯通克拉夫特的作品。海斯在她1796年著的小说《埃玛·考特尼传（英语：Memoirs of Emma Courtney）》中引用了《女权》，并将其中的女性角色塑造成了沃斯通克拉夫特式的理想女性。[93]而且，即使是汉娜·莫尔这样曾亲自谴责过沃斯通克拉夫特的保守女性，亦与沃斯通克拉夫特有着许多相同的价值观。如同学者安妮·梅勒（英语：Anne K. Mellor）写的那样，莫尔与沃斯通克拉夫特都希望社会能建基于“基督信仰的美德、理性的仁爱、诚实正直、个人美德、社会义务的履行、勤俭节约、艰苦朴素与勤奋工作。”[94]在1790年代的早期，英国社会的许多作家都加入了一场关于女性社会地位的激烈辩论中。例如，著名的诗人和杂文作家安娜·巴鲍德与沃斯通克拉夫特曾你来我往地辩论；巴鲍德曾发表过几首诗来回敬沃斯通克拉夫特的作品，而沃斯通克拉夫特在《女权》的脚注中又对她的一首诗发表了评论。[95]
在沃斯通克拉夫特于1797年逝世后，她的丈夫戈德温于次年出版了《女权辩护作者传（英语：Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman）》一书。该书透露了沃斯通克拉夫特的许多不为人知的私生活：她的私生女、她的恋爱，以及她曾打算自杀的企图。尽管戈德温认为自己是出于对妻子的爱情与同情，而如实地描述她的生活的，但当时的读者在读到这本传记后，仍然震惊于沃斯通克拉夫特的这种另类生活方式；而这也导致沃斯通克拉夫特成为了众人辱骂的对象。由于沃斯通克拉夫特的思想与她的生活有着密不可分的联系，因而许多女作家都再也不敢在自己的作品中冒险提及这些思想。举例来说，先前曾经大力提倡沃斯通克拉夫特及其作品的海斯，在她于1803年发表的《杰出与著名女性传》中，根本就没有提到沃斯通克拉夫特。[96]玛利亚·埃奇沃思在她于1802年发表的小说《贝琳达（英语：Belinda (Edgeworth novel)）》中，与沃斯通克拉夫特划清了界线；她用哈丽雅特·弗里克这个角色来将沃斯通克拉夫特讽刺为极端的女权主义者。[97]但是，也有像简·奥斯丁这样的并没有拒绝沃斯通克拉夫特思想的人。虽然对沃斯通克拉夫特的态度截然不同，但埃奇沃思与奥斯丁都认为女性对于国家的发展至关重要；此外，她们也认为女性具有理性的力量，并应该去选择适合她们的婚姻。[98]
Talleyrand，“Rapport sur l'instruction publique”，节选自Vindications，394－395页．原文：“Let us bring up women, not to aspire to advantages which the Constitution denies them, but to know and appreciate those which it guarantees them . . . Men are destined to live on the stage of the world. A public education suits them: it early places before their eyes all the scenes of life: only the proportions are different. The paternal home is better for the education of women; they have less need to learn to deal with the interests of others, than to accustom themselves to a calm and secluded life.”
Wollstonecraft，Vindications，101页．原文：“Having read with great pleasure a pamphlet which you have lately published, I dedicate this volume to you; to induce you to reconsider the subject, and maturely weigh what I have advanced respecting the rights of woman and national education.”
Todd，《Sensibility》，133页．原文：“to many in Britain the cult of sensibility seemed to have feminized the nation, given women undue prominence, and emasculated men.”
原文：“my main argument is built on this simple principle, that if [woman] be not prepared by education to become the companion of man, she will stop the progress of knowledge and virtue; for truth must be common to all”．
（中文）王瑛，6页；（英文）Wollstonecraft，Vindications，109页．原文：“a false system of education, gathered from the books written on this subject by men who, consider[ed] females rather as women than human creatures”．
（中文）王瑛，43页；（英文）Wollstonecraft，Vindications，157页．原文：“taught from their infancy that beauty is woman’s sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and, roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison”．
（中文）王瑛，195页；（英文）Wollstonecraft，Vindications，286页．参见Kelly，125－124页；Taylor，14－15页．原文：“women might certainly study the art of healing, and be physicians as well as nurses. And midwifery, decency seems to allot to them . . . they might, also, study politics . . . Business of various kinds, they might likewise pursue”．
（中文）王瑛，14页；（英文）Wollstonecraft，Vindications，129页．原文：“an exercise of the understanding as is best calculated to strengthen the body and form the heart. Or, in other words, to enable the individual to attach such habits of virtue as will render it independent.”
. Woman, the victim of male social conventions, is tied to the wall, made to sew and guarded by governesses. The picture reflects Mary Wollstonecraft's views in The Rights of Women [原文如此]．
Taylor，12页；参见55－57页；参见Sapiro，257－259页．原文：“Describing [Wollstonecraft's philosophy] as feminist is problematic, and I do it only after much consideration. The label is of course anachronistic . . . Treating Wollstonecraft’s thought as an anticipation of nineteenth and twentieth-century feminist argument has meant sacrificing or distorting some of its key elements. Leading examples of this . . . have been the widespread neglect of her religious beliefs, and the misrepresentation of her as a bourgeois liberal, which together have resulted in the displacement of a religiously inspired utopian radicalism by a secular, class-partisan reformism as alien to Wollstonecraft’s political project as her dream of a divinely promised age of universal happiness is to our own. Even more important however has been the imposition on Wollstonecraft of a heroic-individualist brand of politics utterly at odds with her own ethically driven case for women’s emancipation. Wollstonecraft’s leading ambition for women was that they should attain virtue, and it was to this end that she sought their liberation.”
（中文）王瑛，21页；（英文）Wollstonecraft，Vindications，135页．原文：“Let it not be concluded that I wish to invert the order of things; I have already granted, that, from the constitution of their bodies, men seem to be designed by Providence to attain a greater degree of virtue. I speak collectively of the whole sex; but I see not the shadow of a reason to conclude that their virtues should differ in respect to their nature. In fact, how can they, if virtue has only one eternal standard? I must therefore, if I reason consequentially, as strenuously maintain that they have the same simple direction, as that there is a God.”
（中文）王瑛，198页；（英文）Wollstonecraft，Vindications，288页．原文：“I then would fain convince reasonable men of the importance of some of my remarks; and prevail on them to weigh dispassionately the whole tenor of my observations. – I appeal to their understandings; and, as a fellow-creature, claim, in the name of my sex, some interest in their hearts. I entreat them to assist to emancipate their companion, to make her a help meet for them! “Would men but generously snap our chains, and be content with rational fellowship instead of slavish obedience, they would find us more observant daughters, more affectionate sisters, more faithful wives, more reasonable mothers – in a word, better citizens.”
Poovey，76页．原文：“Wollstonecraft betrays her fear that female desire might in fact court man’s lascivious and degrading attentions, that the subordinate position women have been given might even be deserved. Until women can transcend their fleshly desires and fleshly forms, they will be hostage to the body.”
Kaplan，“Wild Nights”，33页；参见Taylor，118－119页；Taylor，138ff．原文：“it is important to remember that the notion of woman as politically enabled and independent [was] fatally linked [during the eighteenth century] to the unrestrained and vicious exercise of her sexuality.”
（中文）王瑛，（前）8页；（英文）Wollstonecraft，Vindications，111页；参见Taylor，159－161页；Sapiro，91－92页．原文：“weak, artificial beings, raised above the common wants and affections of their race, in a premature unnatural manner [who] undermine the very foundation of virtue, and spread corruption through the whole mass of society”．
（中文）王瑛，61页；（英文）Wollstonecraft，Vindications，169页．原文：“Happy is it when people have the cares of life to struggle with; for these struggles prevent their becoming a prey to enervating vices, merely from idleness!”
（中文）王瑛，224页；（英文）Wollstonecraft，Vindications，311页；Kelly，132－133页．原文：“After the age of nine, girls and boys, intended for domestic employments, or mechanical trades, ought to be removed to other schools, and receive instruction, in some measure appropriated to the destination of each individual ... The young people of superior abilities, or fortune, might now be taught, in another school, the dead and living languages, the elements of science, and continue the study of history and politics, on a more extensive scale, which would not exclude polite literature.”
（中文）王瑛，57页；（英文）Wollstonecraft，Vindications，162页．原文：“I shall make no other comments on this ingenious passage, than just to observe, that it is the philosophy of lasciviousness.”
Wollstonecraft, Mary. Janet Todd , 编. The Collected Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft [玛丽·沃斯通克拉夫特书信集]. 纽约: Penguin Books. 2003: 193－194页. I am dissatisfied with myself for not having done justice to the subject. – Do not suspect me of false modesty – I mean to say that had I allowed myself more time I could have written a better book, in every sense of the word . . . I intend to finish the next volume before I begin to print, for it is not pleasant to have the Devil coming for the conclusion of a sheet fore it is written.
Qtd．引自Sapiro，30页．原文：“there is in some quarters a vague prejudice against the Rights of Woman as in some way or other a reprehensible book, but readers who go to it with this impression will be surprised to find it eminently serious, severely moral, and withal rather heavy”．
Hirsi Ali, Ayaan. Infidel [异教徒]. 纽约: Free Press. 2007: 295. inspired by Mary Wollstonecraft, the pioneering feminist thinker who told women they had the same ability to reason as men did and deserved the same rights．
Wollstonecraft, Mary (沃斯通克拉夫特，M.). Sylvia Tomaselli , 编. A Vindication of the Rights of Men and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman [男权辩护和女权辩护]. 剑桥: 剑桥大学出版社. 1995. ISBN 0-521-43633-8（英语）.
Wollstonecraft, Mary (沃斯通克拉夫特，M.). Miriam Brody Kramnick评与 , 编. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman [女权辩护]. Harmondsworth: Penguin. 2004. ISBN 0-14-144125-9（英语）.
中文译本
沃斯通克拉夫特，M. 《女权辩护；妇女的屈从地位》. 王蓁、汪溪译. 北京: 商务印书馆. 1995年8月. ISBN 7-100-02216-9（中文（简体））.
沃斯通克拉夫特，M. 《女权辩护：关于政治和道德问题的批评》. 王瑛译 第1版. 北京: 中央编译出版社. 2006年10月. ISBN 7-80109-794-7（中文（简体））.
Critical Review New Series 4（1792）：389－398页；5（1792）：132-141页．
General Magazine and Imperial Review 6.2（1792）：187－191页．
Literary Magazine and British Review 8（1792）：133－139页．
Monthly Review New Series 8（1792）：198－209页．
New Annual Register 13（1792）：298页．
New-York Magazine 4（1793）：77－81页．
Scots Magazine 54（1792）：284－290页．
Sentimental and Masonic Magazine 1（1792）：63－72页．
Town and Country Magazine［城镇和乡村］ 24（1792）：279页．
二次文献
Barker-Benfield G.J.(巴克-本菲尔德，G.J.). The Culture of Sensibility: Sex and Society in Eighteenth-Century Britain. 芝加哥: 芝加哥大学出版社. 1992. ISBN 0-226-03714-2（英语）.
Janes R.M. On the Reception of Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Journal of the History of Ideas. 1978, 39: 293－302页 （英语）.
Johnson Claudia L.(约翰逊，克劳迪娅). Equivocal Beings: Politics, Gender, and Sentimentality in the 1790s. 芝加哥: 芝加哥大学出版社. 1995. ISBN 0-226-40184-7（英语）.
Jones Chris(琼斯，克里斯). Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindications and their political tradition. Claudia L. Johnson (编). The Cambridge Companion to Mary Wollstonecraft. 剑桥: 剑桥大学出版社. 2002. ISBN 0-521-78952-4（英语）.
Kaplan Cora(卡普兰，科拉). Mary Wollstonecraft’s reception and legacies. Claudia L. Johnson (编). The Cambridge Companion to Mary Wollstonecraft. 剑桥: 剑桥大学出版社. 2002. ISBN 0-521-78952-4（英语）.
Kaplan Cora(卡普兰，科拉). Pandora's Box: Subjectivity, Class and Sexuality in Socialist Feminist Criticism. Sea Changes: Essays on Culture and Feminism. 伦敦: Verso. 1986. ISBN 0-86091-151-9（英语）.
Kaplan Cora(卡普兰，科拉). Wild Nights: Pleasure/Sexuality/Feminism. Sea Changes: Essays on Culture and Feminism. 伦敦: Verso. 1986. ISBN 0-86091-151-9（英语）.
Kelly Gary. Revolutionary Feminism: The Mind and Career of Mary Wollstonecraft. 纽约: St. Martin's. 1992. ISBN 0-312-12904-1（英语）.
Mellor Anne K.(梅勒，安妮). Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and the women writers of her day. Claudia L. Johnson (编). The Cambridge Companion to Mary Wollstonecraft. 剑桥: 剑桥大学出版社. 2002. ISBN 0-521-78952-4（英语）.
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