A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792) is a work of crucial importance in intellectual history. Considered by most as Western feminism’s central heroine, Wollstonecraft argues that women must be educated to develop their reason in order to throw off the frivolous, debilitating role of man’s plaything. Rather than cultivating power from sexual allure, women should be honest, intelligent, and independent. Her concern about how women’s innate worth is denigrated by improper definitions of the feminine in novels, in advice literature, and in educational systems has inspired women for over two centuries to contemplate the connections between power and femininity.

About the Author:
As a young woman Mary Wollstonecraft worked in most of the few acceptable occupations for genteel women: lady’s companion, governess, seamstress, and schoolteacher. Unsatisfied by these conventional positions, Wollstonecraft carved out a career as a female polemicist, publishing in a wide range of genres: articles, reviews, novels, children’s stories, educational tracts, histories, travel writing, and textbooks.