She published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), fell madly in love with Gilbert Imlay, and had a child with him. Mary Wollstonecraft left for Paris in 1792, during the chaotic time when Louis XVI was about to be executed by guillotine. But this controversial book was just a small taste of what would come later on… Why do people consider Mary Wollstonecraft a feminist? In this book, she attacked inherited rights, the aristocracy, and defended the idea of a republic. There, she worked as a translator and ended up publishing A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790). It was a response to Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790). Later on, she got a job at a publishing house run by Joseph Johnson. What was unusual was that she wrote about single women and their lack of economic freedom. This wasn’t a perspective people expected to hear back then. She wrote the first book in a style that was very common for that time period. She wrote two books based on that experience: Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787) and Original Stories from Real Life (1788). She did end up becoming a governess, although she gave the children a very unusual education. Women also got a much more limited education than men.

When she tried to find a job, she ended up realizing that women only had two choices: to be a nanny or a governess. The first things she wrote about were the issues women faced in the worlds of education and work. Her adulthoodĪfter Blood’s death, Mary made a major decision to become a writer. Blood died after giving birth, which had a lasting impact on Mary. They both had a major influence on her life. Arden’s father was a philosopher, and Mary ended up following that path. Wollstonecraft had two very important childhood friends: Jane Arden and Fanny Blood.

It was an uncertain path to take back then. She also always argued for the independence of women and defied convention. So, she even advised her sister Eliza to abandon her family, but the world wasn’t prepared for that. Mary always made sure to be a constant pillar of support for her sisters. Her family was economically well-off until her father threw away the entire family fortune. Mary Wollstonecraft was born on April 27th, 1759, in Spitalfields (London). Mary Wollstonecraft- Mary Wollstonecraft: The first feminist Her early life “My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating graces, and viewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone.”

Mary wollstonecraft a vindication