a vindication of the rights of woman 1792

Mary Wollstonecraft was only thirty-eight when she died in 1797. The woman who first effective challenged the age-old image of her sex as lesser and subservient human beings lived a short and stormy life in late 18th-century England. This modern appreciation is from the preface to Mary Wollstonecraft: A Biography by women’s studies pioneer Eleanor Flexner (Coward, McCann, & Geoghegan, Inc., NY, 1972) A short and stormy life, a powerful influence She died just days after giving birth to her namesake, who ended up having an enormous impact on literature and culture in her own right. Mary Wollstonecraft was the mother of Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin) Shelley, author of Frankenstein. This was a unique and radical view in 1792 when the book was first published.Ī Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects is considered one of the earliest works of feminist philosophical literature. With Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark and other works, she also shaped the art of travel writing as a literary genre and, through her account of her journey through Scandinavia, she had an impact on the Romantic movement.In the classic A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759 –1797) argued for equality of men and women: Men and women, in her view, are born with ability to reason, and therefore power and influence should be equally available to all regardless of gender. Best known as a radical feminist, Wollstonecraft wrote about politics, history, and various aspects of philosophy in a number of different genres that included critical reviews, translations, pamphlets, and novels. Wollstonecraft, however, was determined to change this and to add a dissenting female voice to the chorus debating political emancipation.

With the gradual erosion of monarchical authority (culminating with the French Revolution in 1789), and the birth of democracy, the question of the rights of men engendered lively debate - but a woman’s lot remained unconsidered. Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) was published at the end of the 18th century, in the period of intellectual upheaval that followed in the wake of the Enlightenment.

A vindication of the rights of woman 1792