{\b Mary Wollstonecraft}.

{\b Date of Birth}.: 27 April 1759 

{\b Date of Death}.: 10 September 1797

{\b Works}.

English writer and advocate of equality for women. 
Best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792), planned as a 
sequel to the unfinished The Wrongs of Women. Other works include A 
Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790), Thoughts on the Education of 
Daughters (1787) and her only novel Mary (1788).

{\b Featured Works}.

Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman.

{\b General Comment}.

Mary Wollstonecraft had an unhappy and insecure childhood which later caused 
her much resentment. She opened a school with a sister and a friend when she 
was in her early twenties, and here she met various important figures in the 
Dissenting movement. Her developing belief in independent thought at all costs 
had strong foundations in Dissenting tradition and would remain constant 
throughout her writing.

 Wollstonecraft's early thinking stemmed largely from personal anger about her 
own life. The French Revolution helped her develop her beliefs and A 
Vindication of the Rights of Men was a direct response to Burke's Reflections 
on the Revolution in France which was counter-revolutionary. Wollstonecraft 
argues that inequality of wealth and power is a corrupting influence, and A 
Vindication of the Rights of Women expands upon this theme, arguing, among 
other things,  that female inferiority results from lack of education and 
opportunity. 
On a visit to Paris in 1792 Wollstonecraft met her future lover, an American 
writer Gilbert Imlay, whose neglect led her to two suicide attempts. She 
returned to London where she married Godwin and died shortly after the birth 
of her daughter, who was to become Mary Shelley. Godwin published a memoir of 
Wollstonecraft in 1798 and later portrayed her in a novel.