Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759–1797)

British feminist and writer. She was a member of a group of radical intellectuals called the English Jacobins. Her book A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792) demanded equal educational opportunities for women. She married William Godwin in 1797 and died giving birth to a daughter, Mary (later Mary Shelley).

Wollstonecraft was born near London, of Irish descent. Owing to her father's thriftlessness, she had to earn her living by teaching, and then worked for Johnson, the publisher, as reader and translator. While thus engaged she met Thomas Paine, William Blake, and William Wordsworth. Going to Paris she collected materials for her never-finished Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution (1794), and there met Captain Imlay, who soon deserted her. Mrs Opie's Adeline Mowbray (1804) was founded on the outlines of Mary's life. Her works include Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787); Original Stories from Real Life (1788); A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790), an answer to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution (1790); and Posthumous Works (1798).