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Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Mary Wollstonecraft was an English writer and philosopher. In 1792, she wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects. In this essay, Wollstonecraft argues that women are neither mere ornaments nor property to be traded in marriage. Rather, women are human beings deserving of the same fundamental rights as men. Her Vindication was written in response to Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord‘s 1791 report to the French National Assembly. Talleyrand argued that women should merely be trained to do domestic chores. In contrast, Wollstonecraft argued that women were capable of rational thought and deserved a rational education. She feared that society would degenerate if women were uneducated, since mothers are the primary educators of young children.
Mary Wollstonecraft died a few days after giving birth to her daughter, also named Mary. This daughter went on to marry the famous poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Mary Shelley is famous as the author of the 1818 Gothic novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, which was an early example of what is now called science fiction.
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