Mary Wollstonecraft — an English philosopher, author and feminist — was born on this day in 1759 into a financially unstable London household with a violent alcoholic father. Wollstonecraft rejected the notion that women were incapable of reason, and she promoted women’s education. She also opposed marriage, which she considered a form of slavery. Mary Wollstonecraft, in a painting circa 1797. Mary Wollstonecraft, in a painting circa 1797. John Opie/National Portrait Gallery, London In the end she did marry — her husband was William Godwin, now seen as one of the first modern proponents of anarchism — when she was pregnant with her second child. (Wollstonecraft had a daughter from an affair with an American.) She died at 38, less than two weeks after giving birth to a second daughter, Mary, who would grow up to write “Frankenstein.” Among the works for which Wollstonecraft is known are two public letters: “A Vindication of the Rights of Men” (published anonymously in 1790) and “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman,” published in 1792. Her goal for women: “I do not wish them to have power over men, but over themselves.” #marywollstonecraft #vindicationoftherightsofwoman https://www.instagram.com/p/COKwCSjLaLq/?igshid=7yijlpjmaz6u










