Before you start

Make sure you're comfortable with these topics first:

Method

Learn Locke's sequence precisely: state of nature (with pre-existing natural rights, not Hobbes's war of all against all), social contract, government by consent, government as trustee, and the right of resistance if that trust is broken.
Always specify which natural rights Locke identifies: life, liberty and property (or 'estates'), and be ready to explain why property matters so much to his argument.
Learn Wollstonecraft's target precisely: she is arguing against Rousseau's claim that women's education should prepare them only for domestic life and to please men, not against reason or rights themselves.
State Wollstonecraft's core move clearly: because women possess the same rational capacity as men, denying them education, property rights and civic participation is inconsistent with liberalism's own foundational-equality principle.
When a question asks you to compare the two thinkers, note what they share (natural rights, reason as the basis of moral status, the injustice of arbitrary exclusion from rights) before showing what is distinctive to each.
Support every claim about either thinker with a specific idea or text, for example the Second Treatise for Locke or A Vindication of the Rights of Woman for Wollstonecraft, rather than a vague paraphrase.
For an evaluative question, use one thinker to support a point and the other, or a counter-thinker from a different ideology, to challenge it, then reach a reasoned judgement.

Worked example

A student has been asked: 'Explain how Mary Wollstonecraft used liberal principles to argue for women's rights.' Plan an answer that names the principle she relies on and the argument she is responding to.

Identify the liberal principle at stake: foundational equality, the idea that all individuals possess equal moral worth because they are equally rational.
State who Wollstonecraft is responding to: Rousseau's claim that women's reason is inferior and their education should prepare them for domestic dependence on men.
State Wollstonecraft's counter-argument: any apparent difference in rationality between men and women is caused by unequal education and social conditioning, not by nature.
Draw the conclusion Wollstonecraft reaches: because women are equally rational beings, liberal principles of natural rights and equality logically require they receive education and civic and property rights on the same basis as men.
Note the significance of the argument: it exposes a contradiction in Enlightenment liberalism, which claimed universal rights based on reason while excluding half the population from exercising them.
Close by linking Wollstonecraft to the later liberal tradition, for example twentieth-century liberal feminists such as Betty Friedan, who extended the same reasoning to formal legal and workplace equality.

Practice questions

Type your answer and press Check to be marked straight away, or reveal the answer and mark yourself.

Q1What are the three natural rights Locke identifies in the state of nature?Show answer

Answer: Life, liberty and property.

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Q2According to Locke, what makes a government legitimate?Show answer

Answer: The consent of the governed; government exists to protect pre-existing natural rights and holds its power in trust from the people.

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Q3What can happen, according to Locke, if a government seriously violates the natural rights it exists to protect?Show answer

Answer: The people retain the right to resist and ultimately replace it, because the government has broken the trust on which its authority depends.

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Q4In which text did Mary Wollstonecraft set out her argument for women's rights?Show answer

Answer: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792).

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Q5Which Enlightenment writer was Wollstonecraft principally arguing against, and what was his view of women's education?Show answer

Answer: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who argued women's education should prepare them for a domestic role subordinate to men rather than for independent reasoning.

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Q6According to Wollstonecraft, why did women appear less rational than men in eighteenth-century society?Show answer

Answer: Because they were systematically denied education, not because they were naturally less capable of reason.

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Q7How does Wollstonecraft's argument connect to the liberal principle of foundational equality?Show answer

Answer: If reason is the basis of equal moral worth and rights, and women are equally rational, then excluding women from education and rights is inconsistent with liberalism's own foundational principle.

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Q8Give one right or opportunity Wollstonecraft argued women should have equal access to.Show answer

Answer: Education (she also argued for property rights and a fuller role in civic and economic life).

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Exam-style questions

Written in the style of a A Level Politics exam paper, with a full mark scheme.

Q1[12 marks]

Analyse the similarities and differences between the ideas of John Locke and Mary Wollstonecraft.

Show mark scheme

Tick each line you got. Your score builds from the marks on the scheme.

Level 1 - basic, undeveloped knowledge of Locke and/or Wollstonecraft, with little or no accurate reference to either thinker's ideas, and no attempt to compare them.3 marks
Level 2 - accurate but underdeveloped knowledge, identifying a similarity (for example that both ground their arguments in natural rights and the idea that reason is the basis of equal moral worth) and/or a difference (for example that Locke's focus is the relationship between the individual and the state, while Wollstonecraft's focus is the internal consistency of liberal principles applied to sex), with limited development of either thinker.3 marks
Level 3 - accurate, developed knowledge of both thinkers, noting that both used natural-rights, reason-based principles to challenge an existing arrangement of unaccountable power (Locke against absolute monarchy, Wollstonecraft against the exclusion of women), and developing the difference with Locke's social contract and consent-based government against Wollstonecraft's critique of Rousseau's view of women's education.3 marks
Level 4 - sustained, precise analysis throughout, additionally noting that Locke's natural-rights framework is the foundation Wollstonecraft builds on and extends rather than a rival theory, and reaching a supported conclusion on how far Wollstonecraft should be seen as applying Locke's principles more consistently than Locke himself did.3 marks

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Q2[24 marks]

Evaluate the extent to which Locke's theory of natural rights and government by consent remains a persuasive basis for legitimate government today. You must consider this view and the alternative view in a balanced way, and reach a supported judgement.

Show mark scheme

Tick each line you got. Your score builds from the marks on the scheme.

basic, undeveloped knowledge of the ideology with little or no accurate reference to named thinkers.3 marks
accurate knowledge of Locke's theory (state of nature, natural rights, social contract, consent, trust) with some explanation, but the answer is one-sided or does not develop a counter-argument.3 marks
a case for and a case against Locke's persuasiveness, using accurate, specific content and at least one other named thinker (for example Wollstonecraft's extension of his principles, or a modern liberal critique from Rawls), and begins to weigh the arguments.3 marks
a balanced, well-evidenced analysis throughout, drawing accurately on Locke and at least one further named thinker, reaching a clear, supported judgement on how persuasive Locke's theory remains.3 marks
his idea that government requires consent and exists to protect rights underlies modern constitutional democracy, the rule of law and the peaceful transfer of power through elections.3 marks
the right of resistance against a government that violates natural rights remains a powerful justification for limiting arbitrary power.3 marks
Wollstonecraft's critique shows Locke's own application of natural rights was inconsistent, since it did not extend meaningfully to women in his own time, raising doubts about how universal his 'natural' rights really were.2 marks
modern liberals such as Rawls argue that formal consent and negative rights are not enough to secure real freedom without state action to address inequality of resources and opportunity.2 marks
A strong answer might conclude that Locke's framework of consent and rights remains foundational to liberal democracy, but that later thinkers such as Wollstonecraft and Rawls have had to correct and extend it to make it genuinely universal.2 marks

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Liberal Thinkers: John Locke and Mary Wollstonecraft

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Method

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Exam-style questions

Free printable worksheet

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