It is a declaration for equal rights between men and women. The political significance of Mary Wollstonecraft cannot be overstated: her work is considered one of the greatest early feminist treatises in history and is also seen as the first step towards liberal feminism. She fought for equality for women in the political sphere, but also addressed the need for equality in the social and private spheres. She stressed the need to reform women's status, education and maternal duties. In A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Wollstonecraft argues that men and women are born with the same ability to reason. Therefore, men and women should be equally capable of exercising reason and achieving knowledge. And in conclusion, educated women would improve society; they would become better wives and mothers (72, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman). She argues that the current educational system (i.e. Rousseau's ideas on women's education) limits women and subjects them to passivity. Women are not as perceptibly “intelligent” as men because they have not been given the opportunity to be so; women receive a “disordered kind of education” (46, A Vindication of Women's Rights). Women are kept in passivity, forced into superficiality and superficiality. She mocks these traits that are seen as inherent to a woman's nature and asks the powerful question: How should women contribute to society if they have been reduced to their appearance and bodily function? For a thriving, modern, and true civilization to succeed, every individual must be encouraged to seek moral and intellectual development, including