Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft (27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was an English writer, philosopher, and advocate of women’s rights. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children’s book. She is best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be only because they lack education.

About Mary Wollstonecraft in brief

Summary Mary WollstonecraftMary Wollstonecraft (27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was an English writer, philosopher, and advocate of women’s rights. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children’s book. She is best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be only because they lack education. After her death, her widower published a Memoir of her life, revealing her unorthodox lifestyle. She died 11 days after giving birth to her second daughter, Mary Shelley, who would become an accomplished writer and author of Frankenstein. Woll stonecraft is regarded as one of the founding feminist philosophers, and feminists often cite both her life and her works as important influences. She was the second of the seven children of Elizabeth Dixon and Edward John WollStonecraft. Her father gradually squandered it on speculative projects, and they were frequently forced to move during her youth. The family’s financial situation eventually became so dire that her father compelled her to turn over money that she would have inherited at her maturity. In a defining moment in 1784, she persuaded Eliza, who was suffering from what was probably postpartum depression, to leave her husband and infant. She made all of the arrangements for Eliza to flee, demonstrating her willingness to challenge social norms. The human costs, however, were severe: her sister suffered social condemnation and, because she could not remarry, was doomed to a life of poverty and hard work.

In 1780 she returned to care for her mother, but had trouble getting along with the irascible woman called Fanny Blood. She realised during the two years she spent with the family she had idealised that she was more invested in traditional feminine values than Woll Stonecraft was in traditional masculine values. In some of her letters to Arden, she reveals the volatile and depressive emotions that would haunt her throughout her life. She revelled in the intellectual atmosphere of the Arden household and valued her friendship with Arden greatly, sometimes to the point of being emotionally possessive. She remained dedicated to Fanny and her family throughout herLife, frequently giving pecciary assistance to her brother’s family. She left behind several unfinished manuscripts, including a book on the history of French Revolution and a collection of short stories. She also wrote a book about the life of the philosopher William Godwin, one of. the forefathers of the anarchist movement. She had a daughter with Jane Arden and a son with Sarah Dawson, a widow living in Bath. Her husband was Henry Fuseli and Gilbert Imlay, a self-styled philosopher and scientist. She wrote about the relationship between men and women in the 19th century and the role of women in society. She believed that women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason.