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Wollstonecraft, Mary

From Encyclopedia of Modern Political Thought
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–97) is best known as a forerunner of modern feminism. Her extensive body of work participated in contemporary debates in education, social mores, philosophy, and theology. Wollstonecraft's works include educational texts, two novels, book translations, an account of the French Revolution, a travelogue of her journey in Scandinavia, and the political tracts A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790) and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). In addition, Wollstonecraft was one of the first women to support herself by means of professional reviewing. Her work for the Analytical Review , a periodical sympathetic to radical causes, is a key part of her opus. In her reviews of hundreds of texts, we see the development of Wollstonecraft's distinct combination of political argument and cultural criticism, primarily in the form of literary criticism. A Vindication of the Rights of Men, Wollstonecraft's first explicitly political work, was written as a response to…
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Nearly two centuries after her death in 1797 from complications following the birth of her famous daughter, Mary Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft occupies an important place in feminist literary studies. During her life, the popular press attacked her “radical” views; after her death, Wollstonecraft…
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Full text Article Wollstonecraft (Godwin), Mary

From The Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Women's Biography
English feminist and radical. She was born in Hoxton, near London, of Irish parents. Her father was a drunkard and wife-beater who tried unsuccessfully to farm in Yorkshire and Wales. Mary was largely self-educated and in 1778 began work as a companion in Bath. After her mother’s death in 1782 she…
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Full text Article Wollstonecraft, Mary

From Political Philosophy A-Z
English philosopher and feminist: in 1790 Wollstonecraft published a Vindication of the Rights of Man , in which she replied to Burke ’s Reflections on the Recent Revolution in France . In it she argued for Reason against Prejudice and against privilege and hierarchy, supporting the ideals of…
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Full text Article Wollstonecraft, Mary

From Philip's Encyclopedia
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Full text Article WOLLSTONECRAFT, MARY 1759-1797

From Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era, 1760-1850
During her short lifetime, Mary Wollstonecraft gained fame as one of the leading English radical writers of her time. After her early death, she was vilified as an emblem of revolutionary excess. Today she is best known as the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), a stirring call…
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Full text Article Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759-1797)

From From Suffrage to the Senate: America's Political Women
Englishwoman Mary Wollstonecraft published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792, a challenge to contemporary philosophers’ views of women and their intellectual abilities. She conceded that many women were vain, ignorant, and childish but argued that women were denied the education and…
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From the publication of her most significant philosophical work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), until her death from complications following the birth of her second child (Mary Wollstone-craft Godwin, later Mary Shelley [1797-1851]), Mary Wollstonecraft was a major figure in the…
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Full text Article Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft

From From Suffrage to the Senate: America's Political Women
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Full text Article Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797)

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
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Full text Article FEMINISM

From Collins Dictionary of Quotations
Men their rights and nothing more; women their rights and nothing less. ANTHONY, Susan B. Motto of The Revolution , 1868. Feminism is the theory: lesbianism is the practice. ATKINSON, TI-Grace Attr. in Amazons, Bluestockings and Crones: A Feminist Dictionary . …
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