Cynthia
Guardian
Mary Wollstonecraft
(1759-1797)
“Mary Wollstonecraft was an Anglo-Irish feminist, writer and intellectual woman of her time.”
“I do
not wish [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.”
Mary Wollstonecraft was born 1759, in
London, and was the second of six siblings. Throughout her childhood her family
moved around and hardly ever settled in one place. Her father a farmer left his
family poor because he was seeking the best area for his agricultural but could
never find the best place to settle. Wollstonecraft’s mother lived in servitude
and was often abused by Mary’s father until she died in 1790. By the time she was nineteen Wollstonecraft
decided she wanted to escape the hardships and instability of her family. She
ventured out to live on her own independently and to pursue an education.
Wollstonecraft then made a disapproval of existing concepts that women were
incompetent of independence, because most women were uneducated and confined to
the domestic family household and as a result unable to develop those talents.
Wollstonecraft and her sister Eliza Wollstonecraft established a school for
women in the 1780s. She then went on to serve as a governess in the family of
Lord Kingsborough before settling in London to pursue a career as an editor and
a writer. In 1788 she became translator and literary advisor to Joseph Johnson,
a publisher of radical books. Her association with Johnson brought her into
contact with top intellectuals in London. In 1792, Wollstonecraft published her
Vindication on the Rights of Women, which was advocating the equality of
men and women. After being publicized she became a well-known feminist author
of her time. “Wollstonecraft
is usually considered a liberal feminist because her approach is primarily
concerned with the individual woman and about rights. She could be considered
as a difference feminist in her honoring of women's natural talents and her
insistence that women not be measured by men's standards.”
Education:
Public
School Education
Self taught
Professional
& Activist History:
Established a school for
children.
Wrote Thoughts on the
Education of Daughters: With Reflections on Female Conduct, in the More
Important Duties of Life (1787).
The governess of Lord
Kingsborough, living most of the time in Ireland.
She settled in George
Street, London, determined to take up a literary career.
Real life experiences make
Wollstonecraft become involved with writing feminist works.
Works on Many Essays and
Books:
Writes
her first book, Mary, a fiction
Maria
or the Wrongs of Women
Wollstonecraft
asserted that women had strong sexual desires and that it was degrading and
immoral to pretend otherwise.
Children's
book, Original Stories from Real Life.
Writes
A Vindication of The Rights of Women.
Advocating equality of the
sexes, and the major doctrines of the later women's movement.
A
series of failed romances also provoked her publications.
Publications:
Works About
the Author:
Works Cited
1. About.com
http://womenshistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa082099.htm
http://womenshistory.about.com/library/qu/blquwoll.htm
Kim Britton’s Website:
http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/maryshel/feminist.shtml
History Guide
http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/wollstonecraft.html
Oregon State University
Philosophy Dept.: Chronology Of Mary Wollstonecraft
http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/wollstonecraft.html