Mary Wollstonecraft

Although she was born in 1759, Mary Wollstonecraft is hailed as the first modern feminist (Cucinello pp). Her "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman," published in 1792, is the first great feminist treatise (Wollstonecraft pp). Wollstonecraft preached that women must be strong in mind and body and that sentimentality was symbolic with weakness (Wollstonecraft pp).

Born to a "gentry" farmer and an aloof mother, it is said she began protesting at an very young age, when her brother received that favored position when it was Mary who would protect her mother from the abusive father (Cucinello pp). For a number of years Wollstonecraft worked as a governess before deciding to make the unconventional career choice of becoming an editor and journalist (Cucinello pp). She wrote the "Thoughts on the Education of Daughters" in 1786 and in 1790 published "A Vindication of the Rights of Man" "as a...
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