In the late 18th century, Europe was a world dominated by men. Women had few rights and were largely confined to the domestic sphere, barred from politics, higher education, and most professions. They were seen as inferior beings, incapable of reason or independent thought. It was in this stifling context that Mary Wollstonecraft emerged as a radical new voice, boldly challenging the oppression of women and arguing for their fundamental equality. Her groundbreaking work, "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" (1792), would spark a revolution in thinking about gender and inspire generations of feminists to come.
The Life of Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft was born in London in 1759 to a middle-class family. Her childhood was marked by domestic violence and financial instability, as her abusive father squandered the family‘s money on failed ventures. These difficult early experiences instilled in Wollstonecraft a fierce sense of injustice and a determination to live life on her own terms.
As a young woman, Wollstonecraft rejected the limited options available to women of her class and chose to earn her own living as a writer, publisher, and teacher. In 1784, she and her sister Eliza established a girls‘ boarding school in London, which provided Wollstonecraft with firsthand experience of the inadequacies of female education. She became increasingly convinced that women‘s subordinate status was the result of systemic oppression and a lack of access to real education, not any natural inferiority.
Wollstonecraft also had an tumultuous romantic life that defied societal conventions. In 1793, she traveled to revolutionary France and began an affair with the American adventurer Gilbert Imlay. She became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter out of wedlock, which scandalized polite society back home. When Imlay abandoned her, the heartbroken Wollstonecraft attempted suicide twice. In 1797, she married the philosopher William Godwin, a kindred spirit who shared her radical views. Tragically, she died just days after giving birth to their daughter Mary, who would go on to achieve fame as the author of "Frankenstein."
Though her personal life was marked by tumult and tragedy, Wollstonecraft never stopped fighting for her principles. She was a true pioneer who lived her philosophy and paved the way for future generations of feminists.
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Wollstonecraft‘s most famous and influential work is undoubtedly "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman," published in 1792. The book was a response to the French Revolution and the Declaration of the Rights of Man, which had failed to extend equal rights to women. Wollstonecraft seized on this revolutionary moment to make a bold case for women‘s liberation.
The central argument of "A Vindication" is that women are not naturally inferior to men, but are made to appear so due to their lack of education. Wollstonecraft asserts that women, like men, are rational creatures capable of independent thought and moral reasoning. She attacks the prevailing notion that women are simply decorative objects meant to please men, writing:
"Taught from infancy that beauty is woman‘s scepter, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison."
Instead, Wollstonecraft argues, women should be educated to develop their capacities for reason, virtue, and useful work. She envisions a society in which educated women are equal partners with men in both public and private life.
"I do not wish [women] to have power over men; but over themselves."
"A Vindication" was a frontal assault on the patriarchal order and a radical call for change that sent shockwaves through British society. Wollstonecraft faced a firestorm of criticism and outrage, with many painting her as a dangerous subversive. But her words also galvanized supporters and planted the seeds of the women‘s rights movement.
Wollstonecraft‘s Legacy
Mary Wollstonecraft‘s impact on feminism and women‘s rights can hardly be overstated. She was a true revolutionary who dared to challenge the deeply entrenched gender norms of her time and demand equality for women in a world that had never before considered such an idea. Her arguments for female education, rational thought, and independence helped lay the groundwork for the first wave feminists of the 19th century, such as Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who would campaign for women‘s suffrage. In the 20th century, Wollstonecraft was embraced as a hero by a new generation of feminists, with Simone de Beauvoir crediting "A Vindication" as the first book of feminist theory.
Today, over 200 years after her death, Wollstonecraft‘s words continue to resonate powerfully around the world. Her vision of a society in which women are educated, empowered, and treated as equals remains an urgent goal, with many of the issues she confronted, from domestic violence to employment discrimination, still relevant.
As we celebrate Wollstonecraft‘s legacy and reflect on the progress made since her time, it‘s clear that the struggle for women‘s liberation is far from over. Women have made tremendous strides, shattering barriers in education, politics, and the workplace that Wollstonecraft could only have dreamed of. But we still live in a world rife with systemic sexism, where women face daily threats to their rights, safety, and autonomy.
The fight that Mary Wollstonecraft began in the 18th century continues to this day. As she wrote in "A Vindication," "It is time to effect a revolution in female manners—time to restore to them their lost dignity—and make them, as a part of the human species, labour by reforming themselves to reform the world." May we honor her legacy by taking up that challenge and working to build a world in which every woman can fulfill her full potential as a human being.
Sources
- Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Edited by Deidre Shauna Lynch, 3rd edition, W. W. Norton & Company, 2009.
- Gordon, Charlotte. Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley. Random House, 2015.
- Tomalin, Claire. The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft. Penguin, 1974.
- Todd, Janet. Mary Wollstonecraft: A Revolutionary Life. Columbia University Press, 2000.
- Sunstein, Emily W. A Different Face: The Life of Mary Wollstonecraft. Harper & Row, 1975.
- "Mary Wollstonecraft." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 16 Apr. 2008, plato.stanford.edu/entries/wollstonecraft.
- "The Rights of Woman." The British Library, The British Library, 6 Feb. 2014, www.bl.uk/collection-items/mary-wollstonecraft-a-vindication-of-the-rights-of-woman.
