Wollstonecraft, Mary

27/04/1759

10/09/1797

Mary Wollstonecraft was a writer and philosopher, regarded by many as being a founder of modern Western feminism. She was born in London and was one of three sisters. Her father was abusive and reckless with money and business. After the death of her mother, Mary moved away from home to live with the family of a close friend, Fanny. Troubled by the lack of opportunities for women, Mary, Fanny and another Wollstonecraft sister - Eliza - set up a girls' school in Islington which was then moved to Newington Green, which was a Dissenting community. She believed that women are not inferior to men, but that they just had a lack of educational opportunity. Wollstonecraft's most well-known book 'A Vindication of the Rights of Women' (1792) is evidence of her proto-feminism as it advocates for women's education and sensibilities. Mary Wollstonecraft had two daughters Frances 'Fanny' Imlay and Mary Shelley, the latter of whom would go on to be a successful writer, author of Frankenstein (1818).