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A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
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About this work
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is Mary Wollstonecraft's 1792 essay and one of the founding works of feminist thought. Her argument is deceptively simple: women appear less rational than men only because they are denied education, and a republic of free, virtuous citizens is impossible while half of them are kept dependent and ornamental. It changed the terms of the conversation for good.
About the author — Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759 to 1797) was an English writer and philosopher best known for advocating women's rights and education. Writing in the heat of the French Revolution, she insisted that reason and virtue have no sex.
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What is A Vindication of the Rights of Woman about?
It argues that women are not naturally inferior to men but appear so because they are denied education, and that society as a whole suffers when women are kept dependent rather than taught to reason.
What did Mary Wollstonecraft do for women's rights?
She made one of the first sustained philosophical cases that women deserve equal education and are equally capable of reason and virtue, laying groundwork for later feminist movements.
Why is it still read today?
Because its core claim, that equality begins with education and that no society is free while half of it is not, remains a live and influential argument.