Is there an unresolved dilema in Mary Wollstonecraft's political philosophy? Towards a possible reconciliation of the two ways of access to citizenship of women in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Abstract

The paper aims to critically analyze the so-called (by Carole Pateman) “Wollstonecraft’s dilemma”, according to which Wollstonecraft would have formulated the demand for women’s citizenship through two alternative and incompatible ways. That is, women should demand the universal citizenship and, at the same time, should demand a non-universal, but gender differentiated citizenship. My thesis is that the two alternative ways described in “Wollstonecraft’s dilemma” can conceptually be reconciled in the work A Vindication of the Rights of Woman of the English enlightened philosopher.