Chapter Chronology

Quiz for Beyond America’s Borders: “France, Britain, and Woman’s Rights in the 1790s”

Choose the best answer to each question.

Question

1. According to this text, which of the following political theorists directly influenced the ideas Mary Wollstonecraft expressed in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1791?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is B. De Gouges and de Méricourt were French thinkers who asserted the importance of women’s equality after the French Revolution. Wollstonecraft probably encountered their work, but she met William Godwin and Thomas Paine in person. Her book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was written to offer an explicit contrast to Paine’s 1791 book, The Rights of Man.
Incorrect. The correct answer is B. De Gouges and de Méricourt were French thinkers who asserted the importance of women’s equality after the French Revolution. Wollstonecraft probably encountered their work, but she met William Godwin and Thomas Paine in person. Her book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was written to offer an explicit contrast to Paine’s 1791 book, The Rights of Man.

Question

2. This engraving was commissioned to accompany excerpts from Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in an issue of the new Philadelphia Lady’s Magazine, published in 1792. What view regarding women’s rights is the artist aiming to express?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is D. The engraving is meant to convey an endorsement of women’s rights. Its publication alongside the work of Mary Wollstonecraft lends credence to the idea that it was intended to promote the importance of women’s rights, not deny it.
Incorrect. The correct answer is D. The engraving is meant to convey an endorsement of women’s rights. Its publication alongside the work of Mary Wollstonecraft lends credence to the idea that it was intended to promote the importance of women’s rights, not deny it.

Question

3. What is the kneeling figure at the center of the image supposed to represent and convey to the viewer?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is B. The kneeling woman at the center is wearing eighteenth-century clothes, bearing the words of Mary Wollstonecraft, while the other two figures are wearing ancient Greek and Roman garments. The kneeling woman represents the eighteenth-century American woman, beseeching the image representing American republicanism and democracy to take women’s rights seriously.
Incorrect. The correct answer is B. The kneeling woman at the center is wearing eighteenth-century clothes, bearing the words of Mary Wollstonecraft, while the other two figures are wearing ancient Greek and Roman garments. The kneeling woman represents the eighteenth-century American woman, beseeching the image representing American republicanism and democracy to take women’s rights seriously.

Question

4. Which of the following summarizes the likely meaning of the objects placed in the lower-left corner of the image?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is D. The objects in the lower-left corner are a book, a globe, a lyre, an artist’s palette, and a page of mathematical notations. These represent literature, geography, music, art, and mathematics and the sciences, which, Wollstonecraft argued, should form the basis of women’s education as well as men’s.
Incorrect. The correct answer is D. The objects in the lower-left corner are a book, a globe, a lyre, an artist’s palette, and a page of mathematical notations. These represent literature, geography, music, art, and mathematics and the sciences, which, Wollstonecraft argued, should form the basis of women’s education as well as men’s.

Question

5. In 1792, Lady’s Magazine reprinted excerpts from Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman, accompanied by this engraving. What does that fact suggest about the women living in the United States at that time?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is B. That Lady’s Magazine would publish these works in 1792 only indicates that there was an audience for both the magazine itself and the content it offered. Without more information, it is impossible to know the thoughts and feelings of all the women who were buying and reading the magazine.
Incorrect. The correct answer is B. That Lady’s Magazine would publish these works in 1792 only indicates that there was an audience for both the magazine itself and the content it offered. Without more information, it is impossible to know the thoughts and feelings of all the women who were buying and reading the magazine.