What is Mary Wollstonecraft still known for?

Answer 1

Mary Wollstonecraft was a republican, condemned monarchy, and spoke very forcefully against inequality. The roots of her ideas extend into the Enlightenment but her most famous work was published during the French Revolution: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Here, Wollstonecraft argued three things:

1. Women are born with the same capacity for reason and self-government as men.
2. Virtue should have equal definitions between men and women.
3. Relations between genders should be based on equality.

Wollstonecraft applied the radical Enlightenment critique of monarchy and inequality to the family. The inequalities of marriage law deprived married women of property rights and gave husbands, what she called, despotic power. She mocked the common culture that promoted female weakness. Wollstonecraft is still known for pioneering these perspectives on women and being a truly remarkable and daring intellectual figure of her time.