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Mary Wollstonecraft: The Roots of Feminist Thought
Why Feminism Prevailed
Wollstonecraft was an English writer and philosopher, perhaps most known for her advocacy on women’s rights. In this post, I will explore why Wollstonecraft is so important for feminist thought today.
“I do not wish them [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.” — Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
In the monumental A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), she defended the thesis that women are not inferior to men. At the time of writing, this was — as many of you know — a remarkably progressive notion.
Many philosophers from Jean-Jacques Rousseau to Hegel thought otherwise. Notably, Wollstonecraft gave birth to Mary Shelley, the author of the accomplished novel still read widely today, Frankenstein.
According to Wollstonecraft, women around her were ‘weak’ and ‘frail’ due to the way society had constrained them. It was not that women were weak by their nature as many philosophers of the day speculated.
