 | Important works:
1790-A Vindication of the Rights of Men
1791-A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
1796-Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark
On marriage:
“If all the faculties of woman’s mind are only to be cultivated as they respect her dependence on man; if, when a husband be obtained, she have arrived at her goal, and meanly proud rests satisfied with such a paltry crown, let her grovel contentedly, scarcely raised be her employments above the animal kingdom; but, if, struggling for the prize of her high calling, she look beyond the present scene, let her cultivate her understanding without stopping to marry.”
Regarding women being created for men:
"...But, if, as I think, may be demonstrated, the purposes, of even this life, viewing the whole, be subverted by practical rules built upon this ignoble base, I may be allowed to doubt whether woman was created for man: and, though the cry of irreliegion, or even atheism, be raise against me, I will simply declare, that were an angel from heaven to tell me that Moses's beautiful, poetical cosmogony, and the account of the fall of man, were literally true, I could not believe what my reason told me was derogatory to the character of the Supreme Being: and, having no fear of the devil before mine eyes, I venture to call this a suggestion of reason, instead of resting my weakness on the broad shoulders of the seducer of my frail sex. "
Chap. V, Section 1, "Rights of Woman" |
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Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin |