by Mary Wollstonecraft

Awoman with a tumultuous career, Mary Wollstonecraft was a single parent, writer, teacher, mistress, wife to a philosopher, and mother of a famous novelist. Her life reflected the social and political uncertainties of her day. Born into a middle-class London family, Wollstonecraft endured a harsh upbringing. The decline of her family's fortunes resulted in their eventual descent into the lower classes. The work for which she is most remembered, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, was the product of personal experience and the turbulent events and ideas of the late 1700s.

Events in History at the Time of the Essay

Romanticism. The movement that served as a backdrop for Wollstonecraft's work is referred to as "Romanticism," a European cultural trend that took place roughly from 1770 to 1848. Romanticism was a reaction to the...