Mary Wollstonecraft: Shedding Light on Feminism during the Enlightenment

The Enlightenment is often viewed as a period of rationalised thinking, that sought to emphasise individualism and challenge the traditional authority. Those who promoted these ideals are often regarded as the ‘great Enlightenment thinkers’, and if I were to ask you to name me these people, you might suggest John Locke, father of liberalism; Voltaire, criticiser of religious institutions; or even Isaac Newton, the physicist who transformed our understanding of gravity and motion. Yet, names often neglected are those of the female thinkers, including Mary Wollstonecraft, who revolutionised female rights through her 1792 feminist text, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, something of which is echoed throughout the various feminist movements that followed the Enlightenment.

The Enlightenment itself was birthed through the institutions which sought to expose new ideas to the forefront of people’s minds. These places ranged from coffee houses to libraries, and from theatres to universities. The transmission of these ideas proved vital in the ‘Age of Reason’, with key figures, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Montesquieu discussing ideas of freedom and universal rights. However, who did these rights apply to? Certainly not to women, revealing the contradictions at the heart of these so-called “universal rights” in a society intent on defining women as inferior to men. Whilst these thinkers addressed the rights of man, Wollstonecraft questioned something many refused to acknowledge: what about the rights of women?

In Émile, Rousseau discusses the inferiority of men to women, stating “the whole education of women ought to be relative to men: to please them, to be useful to them”. Rousseau’s complete dismissal of women’s autonomy and virtue completely eradicate the core values that the Enlightenment portrayed – ideas of reason and universal rights. Wollstonecraft’s, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, questions the legitimacy of this movement (whilst directly targeting Rousseau’s argument) providing a thought-provoking assessment through addressing this inequality that plagued these Enlightenment ideals. She discusses the vital need for women to regain their own independence from men and questions the patriarchal values cemented within society. Particular importance is placed on women’s educational, political and sexual rights: “I do not wish them [women] to have power over men, but over themselves”. The radical nature of this ideal is vital to understanding Wollstonecraft’s influence in challenging Enlightenment thought. Her independence from men – considered scandalous at the time – was crucial in establishing the foundations of feminist rights, the impact of which can be traced through the various waves of feminism that emerged during the twentieth century.

Backlash to this text was inevitable by those who simply condemned her for being a woman who spoke out against the male voice. Yet, her words remained, and echoed throughout the history that followed, influencing thinkers and movements alike. Her work contributed to the fight for educational rights for women, and achieving universal equality. Rather than just promoting these ideals, they were put into practice by those actively seeking out change, such as Emmeline Pankhurst and Elizabeth Cody Stanton, who used her work to support the foundations of the feminist movements in both the UK and the US. Her life is testament to all she stood for, from being denied education (which her brother was gifted), to working as a writer, teacher and political activist, to having personal relationships of her own. Although her death in 1797 did stop her from continuing her own work, her writings paved the way for future feminists to advocate for this female liberation she taught.

Wollstonecraft had died giving birth to her daughter, Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, and through this text it is evident of the long-lasting impact she had left behind. Shelley’s novel illustrates the disastrous outcome that should occur if society does not acknowledge and rectify the issues Wollstonecraft raises within her works. The Monster acts as a catalyst, outlining the damaging impact of female suppression, the influence of patriarchal values, as well as the destruction that can arise by denying someone fundamental rights. Despite this view remaining poignant in the centuries that followed, Wollstonecraft’s work remains incomplete, as women throughout the globe continue to fight for universal rights.

Mary Wollstonecraft, therefore, offered not only contemporary women a voice to criticise the issues surrounding the Enlightenment ideals and thinkers, but also a voice for the women that followed. Her argument has reverberated through future feminist movements: reason is not simply a male weapon to be used against women, reason is simply a right that should belong to all. In doing so, Wollstonecraft has secured her place as one of the most vital thinkers during not only the Enlightenment movement, but also of the subsequent campaigns for women’s rights, from early feminists to the Suffragettes.

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, Émile, trans. by William H. Payne (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1892).

Shelley, Mary, Frankenstein (Ware: Wordsworth Classics, 1993).

Wollstonecraft, Mary, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (New York: Scribner and Welford, 1890).

Secondary Sources

O’Brien, Karen, Women and Enlightenment in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009).

Outram, Dorinda, The Enlightenment (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019).

Taylor, Barbara, and Sarah Knott, Women, Gender and Enlightenment (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).