Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-97) is rightly regarded as a major contributor to the development of liberal ideas in the 18th century. Furthermore, due to her focus on the rights of women, she is generally seen as the first British feminist theorist. One contemporary critic, reflecting the social attitudes of the time, disparagingly referred to her as a ‘hyena in petticoats’. Largely self-educated, Wollstonecraft’s early attempts to make a living included becoming a companion to an elderly lady, establishing a short-lived school, producing needlework and working as a governess for the aristocratic Kingsborough family, which made her sharply critical of the upper-class lifestyle. As an enthusiastic supporter of the American and French Revolutions and the Enlightenment, she associated with radical nonconformists and, in 1788, helped to found the radical journal, Analytical Review. Her republican sympathies led her to conclude that the concept of the divine right of kings was an ‘absurdity’. Wollstonecraft married the radical intellectual William Godwin in 1797 but died in the same year following medical complications after childbirth. Her daughter, Mary Shelley, wrote the famous novel Frankenstein. Wollstonecraft’s most important works include Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787), A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790), A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution (1794), and The Wrongs of Woman, or Maria (1798).

Wollstonecraft’s key ideas

Wollstonecraft’s ideas are indissolubly connected to feminist thought but it is important to realise that her arguments are firmly rooted in two core liberal principles: reason and formal equality. She argued that (1) women are rational and independent beings capable of reason(2) in order to be free, women should enjoy full civil liberties and be allowed to have a career(3) the French Revolution should be defended but the aristocracy and aspects of republicanism needed to be criticised.

1. Women are rational and independent beings capable of reason

In her renowned work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), Wollstonecraft employed Enlightenment principles to maintain that women were capable of reason. She asserted that both men and women possessed equal abilities to acquire knowledge, make judgments, and develop moral frameworks. Wollstonecraft's perspective was rooted in an optimistic view of human nature, asserting that both males and females could act rationally and independently. Consequently, she advocated for women to have the same rights as men.During the 18th century, however, social norms and government policies in Britain reflected the prevailing belief that women were not rational beings and therefore did not deserve individual freedom or equality. As a result, few women owned property or held well-paid or fulfilling jobs. Within marriage, women lacked legal independence and were subordinate to their husbands, who controlled all aspects of the relationship. Moreover, women were denied the right to vote, contradicting the principle of 'government by consent'. Wollstonecraft argued that the perception of women as 'irrational' and 'superficial' was a result of social conditioning by, and dependence on, men. Indeed, in her view, ‘Who made man the exclusive judge if women partake with him of the gift of reason?’ She highlighted the inconsistency of valuing rationality and independence in men while denying the same to women. Wollstonecraft contended that such a situation hindered progress and reason, as it deprived women of their liberty and reason and wasted valuable human potential, ultimately harming society and the state.

2. In order to be free, women should enjoy full civil liberties and be allowed to have a career

Wollstonecraft called for formal equality through a constitutional defence of civil rights. Her argument was comprised of three key elements:

(a) Firstly, Wollstonecraft believed that, in order for women to be truly equal and free, they must have full civil liberties and the ability to pursue a career, rather than being economically dependent on men. She saw her female contemporaries as being akin to 'slaves' in political and civil terms, and argued that ‘men and women should walk side by side, not one behind the other.’ Wollstonecraft therefore campaigned for the implementation of laws that would enhance women's rights in areas such as employment, property ownership, and marriage. In addition, she championed the idea of political representation for women, including the right to vote, as she believed that political emancipation would serve as a crucial step towards achieving gender and legal equality, particularly in terms of property ownership. Thus, Wollstonecraft's arguments for formal equality were rooted in the belief that women should have the same liberties and opportunities as men, so they could be considered genuinely equal members of society.

(b) Secondly, in her view, formal education played a crucial role in empowering women (and men) by instilling self-respect and unlocking their potential. Indeed, Wollstonecraft challenged the views of French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who believed that women required only enough education to become supportive companions for their husbands. Instead, she argued that the key to women's independence from men was through education, enabling them to earn a living and achieve autonomy. Furthermore, Wollstonecraft believed that women’s lack of education underpinned society's perception of females as intellectually inferior. Without access to education, she wondered, ‘How many women thus waste life away the prey of discontent, who might have practised as physicians, regulated a farm, managed a shop, and stood erect, supported by their own industry.’ To remedy this issue, Wollstonecraft proposed reforms to merge private and public education and increase access to schools to provide women with the necessary skills to pursue a diverse range of careers. With the right education and opportunities, she asserted, women could break free from social constraints and expectations and realise their full potential.

(c) Finally, Wollstonecraft envisioned marriage as a genuinely equal partnership (rather than an institution based on the ‘divine right of husbands’) where women could freely choose between pursuing a career or having a family. She believed that while only a select few women would opt for independent careers, most would find fulfilment as wives and mothers. However, Wollstonecraft argued that providing women with access to education, improved rights within marriage, and the ability to work outside the home (even if not taken up) would empower them to develop independence and capability, enhancing their effectiveness as wives and mothers. These changes, she contended, would benefit men as well, as marriages would be more likely to be founded on mutual affection, equality, and respect. Wollstonecraft valued marriage as an institution, but maintained it should be rooted in the liberal principle of equal opportunity, thereby allowing women the freedom to choose between a career or a more traditional domestic role.

3. Defence of the French Revolution and criticism of the aristocracy and republicanism

During the first half of the 1790s, Wollstonecraft became involved in the so-called ‘revolution controversy’ in Britain between opponents and supporters of the French Revolution. Her A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790), which defended the uprising in France, was written as a direct rebuttal of the critical views expressed by Edmund Burke in Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790). She rejected Burke’s conservative defence of the monarchical ancien regime and his criticism that the new French system was based on abstract principles that paid scant regard to continuity and tradition. For Wollstonecraft, the French Revolution represented a ‘glorious chance to obtain more virtue and happiness than hitherto blessed our globe’ by ushering in a new age of equality, freedom, reason, social justice and republicanism. Later, however, she became increasingly critical of the French revolutionaries’ violent excesses but argued that these were due to the degradation suffered by the French people under the old Bourbon regime. Wollstonecraft also condemned the aristocracy on the grounds that inherited privilege and social rank reinforced social inequality and placed obstacles in the way of personal development. In addition, she contended, upper class attitudes damaged women by (1) viewing them in terms of their ability to produce male heirs to continue the family line (2) encouraging them to live vacant, shallow and appearance- obsessed lives in the quest for male attention. It is also important to note that, although Wollstonecraft saw republicanism as a vehicle for achieving social and political change, she was not an uncritical supporter of the movement. From her perspective, republican discourse was inherently sexist because it tended to consider liberty and virtue in exclusively male terms, thereby excluding women from political participation and moral progress (e.g. education).

Impact of Wollstonecraft’s ideas

Undoubtedly, Wollstonecraft was an influential pioneering figure in the development of liberalism and feminism. Although her arguments for wider education and the emancipation of women were largely overlooked during her own lifetime, she helped to inspire various thinkers and activists to extend women’s civil rights in the late 19th century by enabling females to hold property within marriage and enter higher education. Emily Davies, for example, who established Girton College for women at the University of Cambridge in 1869, was largely motivated by Wollstonecraft’s ideas. It is also evident that Wollstonecraft’s arguments about education and female emancipation helped to shape much subsequent equal opportunities legislation for women and influenced the development of the liberal feminist movement in the 1960s.