Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft is considered by some to be the equivalent of a modern day feminist, however many would also disagree due to her somewhat fruitful and extravagant relationships with men. People would argue that she can’t be held in high regard as an advocate for women’s rights as she had affairs with married men and even attempted suicide when separated from another man.
In the book ‘A vindication of the rights of women’ she says;
I will take for granted, she was not created merely to be the solace of man, and the sexual should not destroy the human character.
This quote is an example of how Mary Wollstonecraft was more trying to change the view of the way in which women are viewed in a social context rather than pushing for women’s rights. She says that women should not be labelled as sexual objects but as human beings; the same as men.
Mary often talks about lack of women’s education and thinks this should be a fundamental right that women should be educated in the same way as men;
‘if woman be allowed to have an immortal soul, she must have, as the employment of life, an understanding to improve.’
This shows that Mary thinks a lot like Locke in respect to the mind being a blank canvas that can learn. Mary is saying that women can learn from life and will be able to improve in the same way as men can with an education.