a vindication of the rights of women published

Though initially published anonymously, when she was revealed as the author in the second edition, Wollstonecraft was made famous overnight 2.

She fought against societal structures which assigned to women the role of passive onlookers of political life 1.

Like many of her contemporaries, Wollstonecraft called for a parliamentary and social reform in Great Britain, and further argued that women were capable participants in this change. She penned Rights of Men in 1790 as a response the English member of parliament, Edward Burke’s critiques of the French Revolution. To make a living, Wollstonecraft worked as a translator and reviewer for Johnson, in addition to writing her own works these include her first book: Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787), her first novel, Mary: A Fiction (1788), as well as her better-known essays: A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790) and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), and many more. As a member of “Johnson’s Circle,” Wollstonecraft met several other intellectuals, both men and women, interested in challenging and removing traditional injustices of rank, property, class, and even gender. His shop in St Paul’s Churchyard in London emphasized the publication of works directed at a growing middle class, and so, the books he produced were often more affordable cheap prints. Johnson had an affinity for finding and fostering some of the leading intellectual and literary figures of the late-eighteenth century. However, it was not until she met Joseph Johnson (1738-1809), an influential London bookseller and publisher, that she was able to print her works. With her husband, William Godwin (the so-called Father of Anarchism), Wollstonecraft had a second daughter, Mary Shelley, the famous author of Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus (1818).įrom a young age, Wollstonecraft had an interest in writing and philosophy, cultivated by some of her girlhood friendships. She lived by some of her more radical views, including maintaining at least three known relationships out of wedlock, one of which resulted in a child, and was even a resident of France during the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror. Though short and often difficult, Mary Wollstonecraft’s (1759-1797) life was also bold.

A vindication of the rights of women published