Mary Wollstonecraft: The Mother Of Feminism

In Western Europe during the late eighteenth century, single women had almost no protection under the law, and married women lost their legal identity. Women couldn’t vote, sign contracts, retain a lawyer, have rights over their children, or inherit property. Mary Wollstonecraft caused a sensation by writing A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. She declared that both women and men were human beings endowed with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. She insisted women should be free to pursue professional careers, enter business, and vote if they wished. She called for women to become educated. “I speak of the improvement and emancipation of the whole sex,” (Wollstonecraft 253) she declared. “Let woman share the rights, and she will emulate the virtues of man; for she must grow more perfect when emancipated” (281). Mary Wollstonecraft is often referred to as the Mother of Feminism, and her beliefs produced a major shift in the way women were viewed. She inspired change throughout the Western world. If she had not challenged the status quo, modern women would not enjoy the liberties
She was the second child and eldest daughter of Elizabeth Dixon, who was from Ballyshannon, Ireland. Mary’s father, Edward John Wollstonecraft, was a handkerchief weaver. He became a gentleman farmer after he got an inheritance from his father, who was a master weaver and residential real estate developer, but farming did not prove successful. The family moved seven times in ten years as their finances were exhausted. Edward drank heavily, and Mary often had to shield her mother from his violence. Her schooling was limited, but a friend in Hoxton, near London, had a respectable library, and she spent a great amount of time exploring it. Through these friends, she met Fanny Blood, two years older and skilled at drawing, watercolors, sewing, and the piano. She inspired Mary to begin cultivating her