Mary Wollstonecraft is one of the key figures in the evolution of human thought. Her influence on politics, human rights, and human freedom is nothing short of monumental, and the ripple effects of her thought are evident across our society, from voting rights to domestic practices to workplace politics. In her own time, Wollstonecraft was a renowned and controversial writer and philosopher in her lifetime and is now viewed as an important figure in the feminist movement. She was famous for being an early proponent for gender equality, which she outlined in her pioneering work A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
Wollstonecraft was born on April 27 in London in 1759 to limited means. Though her father, an abusive alcoholic, inherited a sum of money from Wollstonecraft’s grandfather, he squandered it on several poor business choices, leading the family to financial ruin. Due to these challenging household dynamics, Wollstonecraft became fiercely protective of her mother and two sisters. She lacked a formal education and left the house at age nineteen to earn a living as a companion and governess. In 1784, she established a school in the dissident community of Newington Green with her sister Eliza and best friend Fanny. Her experience teaching would inspire several of her later works, including Thoughts on the Education of Daughters. When the school failed, Wollstonecraft went back to being a governess and briefly moved to Ireland.
Fixed on a desire to become a writer, Wollstonecraft returned to London and began working for Joseph Johnson, a publisher of liberal and radical works. She began translating and reviewing works for Johnson, and became a primary contributor and editor of his periodical, Analytical Review. Through Johnson, Wollstonecraft was introduced to and acquainted with many of the leading intellectuals of the day, including Thomas Paine and William Godwin.
The explosion of the French Revolution in 1789 led to the airing of a range of opinions among intellectuals, notably a condemnation from Edmund Burke. Wollstonecraft was outraged by his criticism, and penned a reply called Vindication of the Rights of Men in 1790, which outlined her belief that republicanism was the way forward and aristocracy had no place in the modern age. Wollstonecraft followed up in 1792 with her most famous work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, an argument that posited women were entitled to the same human rights as men. A protofeminist work, A Vindication details Wollstonecraft’s belief that women are as intellectually capable as men, but remain simple and frivolous due to a lack of education. She argues that women need not simply just be “wives,” but true companions to men. Despite its confrontational premise, the work was well received at the time of publication and subject to thoughtful criticism.
Wollstonecraft traveled to France in 1792 to experience the revolution first hand, and there she met an American merchant, Captain Gilbert Imlay. They never married, but had a daughter together, who they named Fanny, in 1794. When Imlay left Wollstonecraft, she plunged into a deep depression and attempted suicide. She later returned to London and again began working for Johnson, where she fell into the radical intellectual movement and began a relationship with William Godwin. The two later married despite their shared objections to the tyranny of matrimony. Wollstonecraft died due to complications from childbirth, eleven days after the birth of her second daughter, Mary Shelley, who would become famous for her work Frankenstein and her celebrated marriage to Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.
William Godwin published a biography of his late wife titled Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, a controversial book that detailed the sordid and scandalous aspects of Wollstonecraft’s life. As a result, she became more known for her unseemly behavior than her writing. Today, Wollstonecraft is remembered for her early and radical notions of gender equality. Her work continues to have a profound influence in the feminist movement of the 19th century and inspired many of the early suffragists.