Beyond Education: Wollstonecraft's Legacy and the Modern Women's Fight for Equality

Abstract

This article analyzes the relationship between education and gender equality, using Mary Wollstonecraft's ideas as a starting point. Wollstonecraft proposed education as a key instrument in liberating women from patriarchal domination. However, despite two centuries passing and women gaining greater access to education, gender inequalities persist in multiple dimensions, particularly the phenomenon of "the second shift" where women bear the burden of domestic work and family care despite working outside the home equivalent to men. The analysis reveals that the roots of inequality are embedded in social power structures, culture, and value systems that reinforce traditional gender roles. Therefore, achieving true gender equality requires changes more comprehensive and profound than merely providing educational opportunities, including structural reforms, fair policy implementation, and social value transformation.