Mary Wollstonecraft: The Mother of Modern Feminism

Female Philosopher
Student’s name
Institution Affiliation(s)

Why I choose the Philosopher - Mary Wollstonecraft
During the late 18th century, Mary Wollstonecraft’s work, “A Vindication of the Rights of
Woman” was considered as the hallmark text for the rise of feminism in modern Europe. The
work was one of the major highlights of an otherwise criticized career of Wollstonecraft. Often
considered to be the ‘mother of modern feminism,’ Wollstonecraft made the whole of Europe
interested in identifying feminism and feminist rights through this work. Still standing its
reputation as one of the best works of the 18th century, the book, although failing to meet the
expectations of an English book in terms of its language, was dead straight in conveying its
points about women and their needs for educational rights. The book was a success right from
the day of its release and marked the beginning of an enrage that pushed the governments of
different nations of Europe and the public, to consider women as equals in the society, giving
them access to their rights. Considering the magnitude of its impact, one can clearly consider it
to be one of the revolutionary ideas to have completely changed the perceptions of human minds
during the 18th century (Wollstonecraft, 1792).
One important reason why Vindication is as appreciated as it is now is because of the
scope of the subject the book handles. It gave a clear interpretation about the social perceptions
about marriage and running a family oriented life and stressed on the importance of women
getting educated. Even though many other writers have given their notions about the same
subjects in the past, what made Wollstonecraft’s work unique was her handling of the most
tentative subject, gender difference, in a way that describes the feminist’s influence on the other
sex, especially the need for men to satisfy their day to day sexual pleasures as well as for their
ideological functions (Todd, 2011). In addition, Vindication promoted what other previous works
lacked - an instigation of new energy levels in the lives of women and a need for change - a

complete transformation of the society. The change here refers to the change in the gender
differences, the change in the perception of a woman and the change in feminism as not being
just another query about women (Wollstonecraft, 1792).
Why I choose the quote – “I do not wish them [women] to have power over men, but over
themselves.”
In general, Wollstonecraft demanded the basic right of what feminism was fought for at
that time - to consider women as equals, as individual beings, allowed to perform their own
actions. But, she claimed them in a different way. Eccentrically, she accepted the common
gender differences that need to be present in human society, but she was firm on the fact that
such differences should not creep into any other activities, such as in considering the role of
women in any organization. This notion of feminist theory laid the foundation steps for modern
feminism (Rampton, 2015).
Another reason that could have prompted such importance for this book was the political
scenarios that were present during that period. Vindication’s political ideas were highly
influenced by the political turmoil that was present at the end of the eighteenth century. It has
direct influences from the French revolution, and Wollstonecraft references it in her work by
mentioning that only a revolution done on the political front could bring about a societal change.
Thus, she brought aspects of feminism like the troubles of women, their oppressions, etc., into
the limelight through the explanations of the then-recent political issues (Berges, 2013).
Another important qualification for the success of this book was that the woman’s right to
vote was never highlighted throughout the book. Wollstonecraft reasoned for neglecting this
aspect by comparing the status of the women with that of the low wage workers, working hard to
pay their taxes but failing to provide even a meager source of food for their children. By stating