Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) is regarded as a pioneer feminist, who unfortunately died in childbirth at the early age of 38. She was a philosopher, a radical thinker who campaigned for the rights of women. Wollstonecraft's most important work is Vindication of the Rights of Women, preceded by a pamphlet, Vindication of the Rights of Man.
In her work, Wollstonecraft argued at that time that slavery and the treatment of the poor were immoral, and British people had the right to remove a bad king. She was not merely for women's rights, but in effect, wanted equal rights for everyone.
Philosophy in Equal Sharing
For Wollstonecraft, the evil of her days and the means by which to put them right, lay in education as she echoed this in the introduction to the Vindication of the Rights of Women. She claimed that since the good of society proceeds from the increase of reason, knowledge and virtue, it can only be to the benefit of both sexes to maximize these qualities. Further, that to treat women as mere trifles encouraged them to be cunning, and therefore debases their natural talents and fosters discord in the home that can be perpetuated in the children.
Suppression of Women's Natural Abilities
Wollstonecraft was concerned with the way women's natural abilities were being suppressed through an education that emphasized the qualities required to serve men rather than enhance their natural abilities as people.
Although Wollstonecraft was clear that it is male-dominated society that has encouraged women to be 'docile and attentive to their looks to the exclusion of all else' and that marriage is merely 'legal prostitution,' she was adamant that this is as much to the detriment of men as it is to women.
Female Suffrage
In the cause of female suffrage Wollstonecraft argued that while men reject the rights of women they can make no appeal to women's duties, as either wife or mother. She claimed that rights and duties are inseparable.
Vindication of the Rights of Women
Wollstonecraft's book Vindication of the Rights of Women, published in 1792, was so revolutionary that it shocked many of her contemporaries. In particular, her views on slavery, treatment of the poor and about bad monarchies, were extremely strong.
Her cause of women's rights might have advanced faster had she not died early. It took another two centuries, this long, before another female of such influence came in the person of Simone de Beauvoir.
Mary Wollstonecraft said:
"Let woman share the rights and she will emulate the virtues of man."
Sources:
Biographical Dictionary, edited by Una Mcgovern, Chambers, 2002
Illustrated Biographical Dictionary, edited by John Clark, London, Chancellor Press, 1994
Philosophy, the Great Thinkers, by Philip Stokes, Capella, 2007
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