What was rousseau aiming to show with his anecdote ? It's an extract taken from Mary wollstonecfraft a vindication on the rights of a woman (1792). In...

Rousseau in
Emile insists
that women are "naturally" given to such behaviors
as being obsessed with
their looks and playing with dolls. He also asserts that woman want to be

subjugated by men because they are "weaker." He writes that having the same level
of
education as men is worthless for women, though they should be given some
education, if only to
be able to adequately raise their children. He says
women are the way they are because
nature made them that
way.

Wollstonecraft attacks
Rousseau's ideas sharply in
her Vindication. The book is an argument for
the better
education of women. Wollstonecraft very strongly asserts that women are

not, as Rousseau contends, born with traits of vanity, weakness,
and the
desire to please men. These, she argues, are all
learned behaviors, the
result of the poor education
women receive. She likens Rousseau's assertions about women's
failings to the
anecdote of the learned pig, a popular but false story in the eighteenth
century
that a pig could learn to read.

Wollstonecraft is
saying that some popular
and widely disseminated ideas and stories--such as
the learned pig anecdote and the idea that
woman are innately inferior to
men--are simply wrong, and she takes Rousseau to task for
repeating false
stereotypes about women. She goes after Rousseau because he was a popular and

respected figure, and she thought his views on women did them great
damage.

Wollstonecraft completely opposes Rousseau's
ideas, stating that with a rational and
sober education, girls would not grow
up into silly, vain, childish creatures but into good
helpmeets for their
husbands and better managers of their households, not to mention able to

raise sensible daughters.