A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Wollstonecraft first defended the rights of men in response to Burke’s pamphlet on the French Revolution, then turned to the rights of woman a couple of years later. It is one of the key texts of modern feminist thought.

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Citation

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects (London: J. Johnson, 1792).

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Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (Author)

English novelist, author of Frankenstein and Mathilda, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft and wife of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (Author)
William Godwin (Author)

Key Quotes

Women’s Rights

That woman is naturally weak, or degraded by a concurrence of circumstances, is, I think, clear. But this position I shall simply contrast with a conclusion, which I have frequently heard fall from sensible men in favour of an aristocracy: that the mass of mankind cannot be any thing, or the…

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Women’s Rights

These may be termed utopian dreams. – Thanks to that Being who impressed them on my soul, and gave me sufficient strength of mind to dare to exert my own reason, till, becoming dependent only on him for the support of my virtue, I view, with indignation, the mistaken notions that enslave my sex. I…

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Connected Readings

Book

A Vindication of the Rights of Men

Mary Wollstonecraft

a Letter to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

One of the first responses to Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France. Wollstonecraft later lived in France during the Terror and wrote a history of the events she witnessed.

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Book

An Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution

Mary Wollstonecraft

An optimistic and rationalist account of the French Revolution based upon first-hand, eyewitness experiences. It was intended to defend the Revolution against critics like Burke. Wollstonecraft explained the violent excesses of the Revolution as an over-reaction caused by the degraded character of…

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