Portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft by John Opie, National Portrait Gallery

Mary Wollstonecraft

*April 27, 1759 (Epping Forest, United Kingdom)
†September 10, 1797 (London, United Kingdom)

Spouse: Gilbert Imlay; William Godwin

Children: Frances “Fanny” Imlay; Mary Shelley

Because her analysis of the condition of women in modern society, Mary Wollstonecraft is considered a moral and political philosopher. One of the enduring challenges of her thinking lies in the juxtaposition of the role of the female sex and a society increasingly regulated by avarice and consumption. Some of her most famous works include Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) and An Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution; and the Effect it has produced in Europe (1794). Next to her importance for feminist thinking, her work shaped the art of travel writing as a literary genre, especially in relation to her account of travels in Scandinavia.

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