Mary Wollstonecraft (1759 - 1797) was an English writer, philosopher and activist who fought for female equality in the 18th century. She has served as an author in various genres but is best known for her pivotal role in feminism.
His most famous work was Vindication of women's rights, work in which he affirmed that men and women are equal, but that the latter ended up looking inferior, since they were not provided education.
This English philosopher did not agree with the canons of femininity of her time and, in fact, managed to live off her work as a writer when that profession was considered exclusively for men.
He had two daughters, the eldest was named Fanny Imlay and she was the product of an affair with an American merchant. Her other daughter was conceived in her marriage to the philosopher William Godwin and growing up became the author Mary Shelley..
The way in which he conducted his life, apart from social conventions, gave him a bad reputation for a time.
Wollstonecraft wrote pedagogical, philosophical, and literary texts. Her ideas were rediscovered almost a hundred years later and were used to theorize around the current of suffragism and female equality..
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Mary Wollstonecraft was born on April 27, 1759, in London, England. His mother was Elizabeth Dixon and his father Edward John Wollstonecraft, the son of a wealthy master weaver who left them a moderate fortune. She was the second of seven children.
The bad decisions of Edward John led them to be practically in poverty and they were constantly moving. The relationship between Mary and her father was never good and she decided to move away from home early.
Mary's brother, Edward, was the only one who had access to a formal education. In his grandfather's inheritance it was stipulated that each granddaughter also received a part of the fortune, but the only ones who received the money were the male members of the family.
Wollstonecraft was not happy at home, so she used to seek refuge in the homes of her friends Jane Arden and Frances “Fanny” Blood, whose parents became a role model for her..
In 1778 Wollstonecraft began working as a companion, a respectable position for a woman of her social status. His boss was a widow named Sarah Dawson and when she took the position Mary was about 19 years old.
He did not get along with his employer and in 1781 he decided to return home to care for his mother, who was ill. Despite the care and company of her daughter, Elizabeth Dixon passed away in 1782.
After the loss of her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft moved in with the Bloods, the family of her friend Fanny. The following year she moved to her sister Eliza's house to help her, since she had just given birth..
Not long after, Mary and Eliza fled, abandoning the newborn, who passed away before reaching her first birthday..
Mary Wollstonecraft and her sister Eliza felt that they should start a new life in which they did not depend on anyone. Fanny Blood joined them at first, followed by Everina, the other Wollstonecraft sister..
Together they created a girls' school located in Newington Green, which was where Mary came into contact with the Reverend Richard Price, whom she deeply admired and who became a powerful influence in her life..
Shortly afterwards Fanny became engaged to Hugh Skeys; After the wedding the couple decided to settle in Portugal, since the health of the new Mrs. Skeys was fragile and the environment in England did not favor her.
Fanny became pregnant and Wollstonecraft traveled with her to care for her. In any case, Mary could not save her from her fate and Frances "Fanny" Blood passed away in 1785..
Furthermore, upon returning to England Wollstonecraft learned that the school was in crisis. In his absence, debts accumulated and his sisters did not know how to manage the institution efficiently..
At that time Wollstonecraft had already begun to write, he had advanced a work which he titled Maria's novel and, thanks to his experience in teaching, he created his pedagogical work Thoughts about raising daughters (1787).
For the last text he received an advance from Joseph Johnson, a London publisher, which enabled him to settle his accounts. In it, he addressed issues such as discipline and morals, manners, internships for women and the treatment that should be offered to servants..
She also got a job as a governess in Ireland with the Kingsborough family and while there Wollstonecraft finished her novel. Despite this, he never managed to get along completely with his boss, the mother of the children who had been left in his care..
He returned to London and began to try to earn a living from his intellectual work. In the English capital the publisher Joseph Johnson found her a job as an author and translator of texts in German and French..
Wollstonecraft also wrote reviews on various subjects, especially novels. Joseph Johnson was a strong father figure in her life and was instrumental in her intellectual development..
Her boss, Johnson, introduced Wollstonecraft to her social circle, which featured such personalities as Thomas Paine and the philosopher William Godwin, who later became her husband..
At the end of 1789 the Reverend Richard Price published a text celebrating the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, made by the National Assembly of France. Edmund Burke responded with another text in which he attacked the point proposed by the reverend.
At that time Wollstonecraft decided to defend his admired friend and wrote his work in reply to Burke. Vindication of men's rights, published in 1790 as an anonymous text and in a second edition with his name.
That response positioned her as an author of political issues and gave her many opportunities to be heard in the London intellectual environment of the time. Soon after, in 1791, he began to write Vindication of women's rights, which later became his most famous work.
In that text he spoke about the institution of marriage and its resemblance to a property title over a woman. She also stated that it was important to promote female education so that women could better perform all facets of their lives..
During that time she had a fleeting love affair with the painter Henry Fuseli, but in order not to put her marriage at risk, he decided to cut off any relationship with Wollstonecraft, which created deep disappointment and shame in the author..
After that failure, he decided to change his environment and moved to France to witness the events of the revolution that he had defended so much while he was in England..
In December 1792 he stepped onto continental soil, at which time relations between France and his country of origin were very fragile. That was no deterrent to Wollstonecraft, who befriended British expatriates and Girondin revolutionaries in Paris..
After the declaration of war between France and England, British residents in the country began to be subjected to surveillance and were prohibited from leaving French lands.
The future did not look good for Wollstonecraft, whose Girondist friends had been defeated by the Jacobins and, in fact, some had been guillotined.
In the years that Mary Wollstonecraft lived in Paris, she met an American traveler who was engaged in trade named Gilbert Imlay.
The British author fell in love with him and they began a romantic relationship, something that was not common in English women of the Wollstonecraft social class, since a woman's honor was linked to her sexual life.
In those years Wollstonecraft became disenchanted with the French Revolution, especially because its leaders did not value women in the way that they would have liked, but were seen as inferior beings and subordinate to men..
When the reign of terror took hold in France, Wollstonecraft came into imminent danger because of his nationality. However, Imlay protected her by falsely testifying that they were married and thus she came to be considered an American..
In 1794 the illegitimate daughter of the couple was born, whom Wollstonecraft baptized as Fanny in honor of her late friend. Imlay and Mary had moved to Le Havre, and he decided to leave on a trip with the promise that he would return..
No money and no company Wollstonecraft and her newborn girl spent one of the harshest winters of the century in Paris.
When she returned to her country, Wollstonecraft began calling herself Mrs. Imlay, so that no one doubted the legitimacy of her daughter Fanny. She tried unsuccessfully to get her former lover back with her, but was unsuccessful.
The first time, in 1795, Wollstonecraft approached Imlay in London, but he did not wish to resume their relationship or take on any kind of family responsibilities. After being rejected she tried to commit suicide but Imlay stopped her.
Later he traveled to Scandinavia to close business deals and she decided to follow him accompanied by Fanny. For the second time Imlay explained that the relationship between them had ended and back in England Wollstonecraft committed a second suicide attempt..
After overcoming his love disappointment, Wollstonecraft resumed his work with Joseph Johnson and his social life as well. At that time he met again with an old acquaintance, the philosopher William Godwin, with whom he began a passionate relationship from the summer of 1796.
The following year Godwin and Wollstonecraft married and moved to Somers Town. He rented a nearby studio and thus each maintained their independence during the day. Five months after the wedding Wollstonecraft gave birth to their second daughter, who was also named Mary.
Mary Wollstonecraft passed away on September 10, 1797, at the age of 38. While giving birth to her last daughter, the placenta ruptured and became infected, leading to a severe fever, septicemia, and ultimately death..
Godwin was devastated by the loss of his wife, but decided to take care of her eldest daughter as if she were his own. Mary Wollstonecraft was buried in St. Pancras Cemetery in Somers Town, London.
The following year Godwin published the memoirs of Mary Wollstonecraft, in which the most intimate details of the author's life were revealed. Although she apparently did so without ill intentions, that publication discredited the writer in English society for more than a hundred years..
For a time the philosophical legacy and the fight for equality that Wollstonecraft carried out was silenced by the reproaches that existed around the moral scandals that were revealed in his memoirs..
However, authors such as Jane Austen received witness to their struggle and references to the historical figure of Wollstonecraft are frequent in their texts. In the mid-nineteenth century the work of this British author began to revive before the eyes of young women.
The suffragettes took the work of Wollstonecraft, Vindication of women's rights, as a sign for their fight for equality.
Outstanding figures of feminism such as the author Virginia Woolf or Emma Goldman were inspired by the life of the British writer Mary Wollstonecraft, who came to be considered a reference in the theorization of feminism to the present day..
- "Return to women rational creatures and free citizens and you will quickly become good wives and mothers, if men do not neglect their roles.".
- "I do not want women to have power over men, but over themselves".
- “Friendship is a serious affection; the most sublime of all, because it is based on principles and consolidates over time ".
- "It is vain to expect virtue of women until they are, to some degree, independent of men".
- "It is justice, not charity, what is lacking in the world".
- "Executions, far from being a useful example for survivors, have quite the opposite effect, as they harden the hearts that they try to terrorize".
- Reflections on the education of daughters - 1787 (Thoughts on the Education of Daughters).
- The Novel of Mary - 1788 (Mary: A Fiction).
- Original Stories from Real Life - 1788.
- The Female Reader - 1789.
- Vindication of the rights of man - 1790 (A Vindication of the Rights of Men).
- Vindication of women's rights - 1792 (A Vindication of the Rights of Woman).
- A historical and moral vision of the French Revolution - 1794 (An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution).
- Letters written during a short residency in Sweden, Norway and Denmark - 1796.
- Contributions to Analytical Review - from 1788 to 1797.
- Letters to Imlay - 1798.
- On poetry and our taste for the beauties of nature - 1798.
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