Mary Wollstonecraft was a British writer, advocate, and philosopher; she is often considered one of the founders of feminist philosophy! However, her legacy as a philosopher has been overshadowed by her personal life, specifically her relationships, which sparked criticism and denunciation.
Besides her personal life, Wollstonecraft is best known for her work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects (1792), which is considered one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy. While Wollstonecraft makes many contentions in this piece, I want to highlight just a few key points. She argues that women are not naturally inferior to men but may seem so only due to a lack of education. She firmly believes that women should have an education commensurate with their position in society and that women are essential to the nation because they are responsible for educating their children. This theme of education is especially prominent in this piece with her later advocating for co-educational schooling. In fact, her passion for equal education even spurred her to write Thoughts on the Education of Daughters in 1787, which encouraged educating children with self-discipline, honesty, and frugality.
Through my research, I was surprised to learn that Wollstonecraft influenced many other noteworthy women with her words. In particular, Jane Austen’s work seems to reflect many of Wollstonecraft’s ideas. In Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Wickham is the kind of man that Wollstonecraft argued should be the product of society’s armies, and Elizabeth Bennet’s attitude about “female accomplishments” is eerily similar to Wollstonecraft’s criticisms about these activities. Wollstonecraft also inspired many others, including Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who inspired the Seneca Falls Convention on women’s rights in 1848!
Mary Wollstonecraft died on September 10, 1797, just 11 days after giving birth to Mary Shelley, who would eventually write Frankenstein. Her legacy lives on even today with many scholars referencing her work and recognizing her as one of the founders of feminist philosophy.
Thank you for reading!
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