Question

Consider, Sir, dispassionately, these observations—for a glimpse of this truth seemed to open before you when you observed, “that to see one half of the human race excluded by the other from all participation of government, was a political phænomenon that, according to abstract principles, it was impossible to explain.” If so, on what does your constitution rest? –A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft What is the central idea of this passage?

Answer 1

In this excerpt from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft, the speaker is trying to get the audience to see the discrepancies between their bill of rights and the exclusion of women in democracy by alluding to the equality mentioned in the constitution and how it's being used to grant rights to the African-American people, but not to women.

Answer 2

It is unexplainable that women cannot participate in government. Hope this helps :)