Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft – Life, Thought, and Lasting Legacy

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797) was an English writer, philosopher, and early feminist. This article traces her life, major works (especially A Vindication of the Rights of Woman), her philosophical ideas, personal struggles, and enduring influence on feminist thought.

Introduction

Mary Wollstonecraft is often regarded as one of the foundational figures of feminist philosophy. At a time when public life, politics, and intellectual respectability were largely closed to women, she argued forcefully for women’s education, political participation, and moral equality. Her works combine Enlightenment rationalism, moral fervor, and deeply felt empathy. Beyond her writings, Wollstonecraft’s life itself—marked by unconventional relationships, intellectual boldness, and early death—became a symbol of a woman living on her own terms. Today, her ideas remain vibrant in discussions of gender, rights, education, and the nature of equality.

Early Life and Family

Mary Wollstonecraft was born on 27 April 1759 in Spitalfields, London, England. Elizabeth Dixon and Edward John Wollstonecraft.

Her father initially had some financial means, but over time he made speculative ventures, purchased land, and attempted to live as a gentleman farmer—efforts that largely failed and gradually undermined the family’s economic stability.

Because their fortune was dwindling, the family moved repeatedly during Mary’s youth.

When she reached late adolescence, Mary supported herself in various roles: as a governess, as a companion, and eventually as a school founder. 1784, she and her sister Eliza established a small school at Newington Green, outside London, aiming to provide an education combining intellectual rigor and moral formation.

Intellectual Formation & Early Writings

Mary Wollstonecraft’s intellectual horizon was shaped by the currents of the Enlightenment, radical dissent, and the political ferment of her age. She was influenced by thinkers such as Richard Price, Joseph Priestley, and the circle of “rational dissenters” who challenged orthodox religion and aristocratic privilege.

Her earliest published works concerned education, conduct, and children. In 1787, she published Thoughts on the Education of Daughters, in which she critiques the superficial education afforded to girls and argues for cultivating reason and moral character.

In 1788, she published Original Stories from Real Life, a children’s book framed as a series of stories and dialogues intended to instruct the affections and virtue of its young readers. Of the Importance of Religious Opinions) and contributed reviews to periodicals such as the Analytical Review, edited by Joseph Johnson.

Her literary ambitions grew. In 1788 she also published a novel, Mary: A Fiction (sometimes titled Mary: A Fiction), exploring issues of sensibility, loss, and female autonomy. The Female Reader, an anthology intended for women’s moral and intellectual improvement.

However, it was her later “Vindications” that brought her the enduring fame.

The “Vindications” & Political Philosophy

A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790)

In response to Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)—a conservative defense of tradition and order—Mary Wollstonecraft composed A Vindication of the Rights of Men.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)

Her most famous treatise is A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (published 1792).

In the treatise she critiques prevailing conduct manuals and educational theorists (notably Rousseau, John Gregory, James Fordyce) for prescribing passive domesticity for women.

This work is often cited as one of the earliest foundational texts in liberal feminism.

Later Works & Travel

During the upheaval of the French Revolution, Wollstonecraft embarked on a journey to Paris in December 1792, witnessing revolutionary events first hand. An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution (1794) reflecting on the course and moral dimensions of the Revolution.

She also undertook a perilous Scandinavian journey with her young daughter Fanny Imlay, following the collapse of her relationship with Gilbert Imlay. Letters Written during a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (1796).

Toward the end of her life she began writing The Wrongs of Woman, or Maria, intended as a feminist novel exploring the legal, social, and emotional constraints on women. The work remained unfinished at her death.

Personal Life, Struggles & Death

Mary Wollstonecraft’s personal life was bold, complex, and often scandalous by the norms of her era.

She had a romantic involvement with Henry Fuseli, the Swiss painter, while he was married. Although she proposed a somewhat utopian arrangement including Fuseli’s wife and Wollstonecraft in intellectual companionship, Fuseli ultimately rejected her.

Her most consequential relationship was with Gilbert Imlay, an American adventurer. The two were not formally married but had a daughter, Fanny Imlay, in 1794.

After their separation, Mary attempted suicide (likely via laudanum) in 1795, a tragic episode revealing her emotional strain.

She later married the philosopher William Godwin in 1797. Their only daughter, Mary Shelley (later author of Frankenstein), was born 30 August 1797. 10 September 1797, just 11 days after childbirth, from puerperal fever (infection following childbirth).

After her death, Godwin published Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1798), which included frank details of her personal life. The memoir’s revelations about her romantic relationships and struggles subjected Wollstonecraft’s reputation to significant scandal and criticism for much of the 19th century.

Thought, Themes & Philosophical Contribution

Mary Wollstonecraft’s work weaves together political philosophy, moral psychology, and philosophy of education. Below are some of her central themes and contributions:

Reason, Virtue & Education

Wollstonecraft grounded her argument for equality in reason: she believed that virtue is not gendered and that rational capacities should be cultivated in women just as in men.

Rights & Social Status

She argued that political rights and civil standing should not be based on birth, gender, or property, but on the moral and rational capacities of individuals.

Marriage, Economics & Autonomy

In her critique of marriage, she pointed out that women’s legal and economic dependence on husbands curtailed their freedom and moral agency.

Sensibility & Sentiment

While drawing on the culture of sensibility (emotional responsiveness, empathy) common to her era, she critiqued its excesses when disconnected from reason. She sought a balance: feeling guided by judgment, not allowing sentimentality to undermine moral agency.

Political Engagement & Revolution

Wollstonecraft placed her feminist project within a broader framework of political reform and revolution. She saw female equality as integral to broader social justice, radicalism, and the project of Enlightenment.

Memorable Quotes

Though not always remembered for pithy aphorisms, Mary Wollstonecraft left several lines that reflect her rhetorical urgency and intellectual spirit:

“I do not wish them [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.” “Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience.” “Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your reading have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.” “Women are told from their infancy, and taught by the example of their mothers, that a little knowledge of human weakness, justly termed cunning, softness of temper, outward obedience, and a scrupulous attention to a puerile kind of propriety, will obtain for them the protection of man — and should they be beautiful, the right direction of that beauty.”

These quotations highlight her conviction about autonomy, education, moral agency, and the dangers of social conditioning.

Legacy & Influence

Mary Wollstonecraft’s reputation has undergone transformation through the centuries:

• In the immediate decades after her death, the publication of Godwin’s memoir damaged her reputation in polite society, and she was sometimes dismissed as scandalous or immoral.

• During the 19th century, as women’s suffrage and feminist movements emerged, Wollstonecraft was re-evaluated and reclaimed as a precursor and heroine.

• In contemporary feminist theory, she is cited widely in discussions of liberal feminism, education, gender justice, and rights-based frameworks.

• Her daughter Mary Shelley, raised by William Godwin, acknowledged and revered her mother’s intellectual legacy, and the memory of Wollstonecraft shaped Shelley’s life and work.

• Wollstonecraft has become a cultural icon: her image appears in feminist anthologies, biographies, statues, literary curricula, and public commemorations.

Her insistence that women be seen as rational, independent beings has become a central foundation for much of modern feminist thought.

Lessons from Wollstonecraft’s Life & Work

1. Principled Courage
   Wollstonecraft lived her ideas: she challenged social norms, risked her reputation, and took intellectual risks.

2. Reason + Empathy
   She shows that advocacy for justice must combine rational argument with moral sensitivity and human feeling.

3. Education as Liberation
   Her conviction that education empowers the weakest and opens doors for the excluded remains deeply relevant.

4. Intersecting Reform
   She modeled a feminism that is not isolated but connected to political, social, and economic reform.

5. The Personal is Philosophical
   Her own life—its contradictions, vulnerabilities, and aspirations—became part of the discourse about what women’s equality means in concrete terms.

Conclusion

Mary Wollstonecraft’s life was far too brief to satisfy her boundless intellect and passion, but in her works and in her example she laid vital groundwork. She remains a towering figure in feminist history: a voice that challenged patriarchy, demanded equality, and insisted that women not merely adapt, but transform. Her voice continues to provoke, inspire, and move us as we confront new inequities, educational injustices, and questions of political membership.