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Mary Wollstonecraft: Breaking 18 th Century Gender Roles. The Life of Mary Wollstonecraft. Mary Wollstonecraft, was born April 27, 1759, in London and died September 10, 1797. She was the second of six children.
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The Life of Mary Wollstonecraft • Mary Wollstonecraft, was born April 27, 1759, in London and died September 10, 1797. • She was the second of six children. • She endured a difficult childhood, denied the advantages and affection lavished on her older brother. She often had to protect her mother from the drunken rage of her father, the son of a master weaver from London who tried unsuccessfully to set himself up as a gentleman farmer.
Wollstonecraft’s Life continued … • Many other eighteenth-century girls had to endure similar injustices and hardships. It was Mary's genius that allowed her to rise above obstacles and transform her experience into a dream of a reordered society. • As a young woman, Wollstonecraft supported herself as a lady's companion, seamstress, governess, and schoolteacher. She was largely self-educated.
Love and Heartache • In 1793 Wollstonecraft left England to observe the French Revolution in Paris. • Mary met Captain Gilbert Imlay, an American timber-merchant. She agreed to become his common law wife and in May 1794, she bore him a daughter, Fanny. In November 1795, after a four months' visit to Scandinavia as his "wife," she tried to drown herself since Imlay had deserted her.
Return to London • After recovering from her suicide attempt, Wollstonecraft returned to London and joined the influential radical group that included William Godwin. • In 1796 she began a relationship with Godwin, and on March 29, 1797, Mary being pregnant, they were married. Both of them abhorred marriage as a symbol of the tyranny of men over women, but they married for the sake of the child. The marriage was happy but brief; Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin died 11 days after the birth of her second daughter, Mary.
Most Important Work • Her mature work on woman's place in society is A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), which calls for women and men to be educated equally.
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman • A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is one of the trailblazing works of feminism. Published in 1792, Wollstonecraft's work argued that the educational system of her time deliberately trained women to be frivolous and incapable. Bad! Good!
Aim of Vindication • Other early feminists had made similar pleas for improved education for women. • Wollstonecraft's work was unique in suggesting that the betterment of women's status be effected through such political change as the radical reform of national educational systems. Such change, she concluded, would benefit all society.
A Lasting Impression • The publication of Vindication caused considerable controversy, but failed to bring about any immediate reforms. • However, from the 1840s, members of the incipient American and European women's movements resurrected some of the book's principles.
Websites Used • http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/marywollstonecraft.html • http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Wwollstonecraft.htm • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Wollstonecraft
