Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797) was an eighteenth-century British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book. Wollstonecraft is best known for ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’ (1792), in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be only because they lack education. She suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason.

Today Wollstonecraft is regarded as one of the founding feminist philosophers, and feminists often cite both her life and work as important influences

In its "The Millennium" issue, Life magazine ranked Ms. Wollstoncraft in their listing of “Top 100 People of the Millennium” (Fall, 1997).  In the category of ‘Thinkers’ she is ranked #5.  Ms. Wollstoncraft’s overall all rank among the top 100 is #26.

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