Wollstonecraft09

media type="custom" key="4655427" Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) a british writer, philosopher and feminist
 * ​Script for podcast:

Today Mary Wollstonecraft is thought to be one of the founding feminist philosophers. Present day feminist often cite her work, but that was not always the case. After her death in 1797 her reputation was ruined because of a memoir her husband William Godwin published about her life. She was ridiculed because of her unconventional life which included one child born out of wedlock and another child conceived before her marriage plus numerous suicide attempts including jumping from the Putney Bridge.

Mary Wollstonecraft was born in London England in 1759. She was the second of six children in a wealthy family. However, by the time she was a teenager her abusive father had lost all of their money.** **She was very close with her younger sister Eliza. In fact it was one event with her sister that showed even early in her life that she was willing to oppose social norms. Eliza was suffering a nervous break down after the birth of her first child. Mary was called to take care of her. It was during this time that Mary witnesses the abuse of her sister at the hands of Mary's brother-in-law. With Mary's encouragement and support Eliza left her husband and newborn baby and sought protection with Mary.**


 * Mary worked as a teacher, governess, writer and translator. Through her work as a translator she meet many radical thinkers of the time that shaped her views.** **She felt that men and women should both be treated equally because they both had the ability to reason. She also thought that women were not naturally inferior to men but only appeared that way because they lacked education. "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" published in 1792 was her most famous piece and summerized those views as well as her belief that women must stop being so emotional and being overly concerned about romantic love and physical attractivness.**


 * However, Mary herself struggled with her emotions. She twiced tried to kill herself over the fact that her boyfriend, American Gilbert Imlay, left her for another women. Mary had 2 daughters. One illegitimate with Imlay and the other born just 10 days before she died of childbirth fever at the age of 38. That daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, went on to write the novel Frankentein.

Mary Wollstonecraft undertook the task of helping women to achieve a better life, not only for themselved, their children but also their husbands. However, it took until the present feminist movement of the 1960's and 1970's for her views to be put into effect.**

=Mary Wollstonecraft- Writer and Feminist (1759-1797)=

**Background Information**:
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 * **Mary was born in London in 1759 to Edward John Wollstonecraft and Elizabeth Dixon.**
 * **She was the second of six children. Mary was very close with her younger sister Eliza.**
 * **Mary received a typical "women's education" during her youth. It was not until clergyman's, Mr. Clare, friendship and guidance did she begin to develop intellectually. She had many radical views and friends over her lifetime.**
 * **She was an educator of women, author and feminist.**
 * **Many of her written works where about the social injustices of women and the lower classes.**
 * **Mary was involved with American timberman Gilbert Imlay. She has one child with Imlay named Fanny, after her close childhood friend. Mary never married Imlay, instead lived openly with him as his common-law wife.**
 * **Imlay had many affairs during his relationship with Mary. During this time in her life, she tried to commit suicide two times. One time jumping off of the Putney Bridge in hopes of drowning herself. Imlay left Mary for another women.**
 * **Mary had another child with William Godwin. Although Godwin and Mary adhorred marriage as a form of tyranny, she married him in March of 1797. Their child Mary (who went on to write the book __Frankenstein__) was born August 30, 1797.**
 * **Mary Wollstonecraft died of "childbed fever" on September 10, 1797.**

​Motivation for Accomplishments:

 * **Both her mother and her sister Eliza lived in abusive marriages. Mary often spent the night by her mother's bedroom door so her father could not abuse her. Eliza left her abusive husband and newborn child on Mary's advice. This showed Mary's willingness to challenge social norms.** **However, her sister Eliza had a hard life from there, often having to work hard and live in poverty.**
 * **Mary spent time in France as a governess and observed the French Revolution**
 * **At her school which she opened with her sister and friend, she realized that excessive concern for romantic love and physical desirability, she believed, are not the natural conditions of female existence but rather the socially-imposed means by which male domination enslaves them.**
 * **Mary's female friendships shaped her life. Franny Blood acted as a mentor and provided a stable home for Mary when the abuse at her own home became too much for her to handle.**
 * **She meet many radical thinkers through her work as a translator in London. She was working to support herself after her father lost of the family's money.**

Accomplishments:
Kreis, S.A (2009, august 03). //Lectures on Modern European Intellectual History//. Retrieved from http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/wollstonecraft.html Todd, J (2002, April 19). //Mary Wollstonecraft: A' Speculative and Dissenting Spirit'//. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/wollstonecraft_print.html (2009). Mary Wollstonecraft. //Wikipedia//. Retrieved (2009, August 26) from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=19834 Steinem, G (1995). //Women Who Changed the Worl//. New York, NY: Visual Publications, Inc
 * **Mary wrote many books on politics and the French Revolution. They included: //A Vindication of the Rights of Men, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Thoughts on the Education of Daughters, History and Moral View of the Origins and Progress of the French Revolution.//**
 * **​ Mary opened up a school in Newington Green with her sister Eliza and best friend Franny Blood. Mary was the head mistress of this all girls school. She was displeased to see that the girls of the school had already been enslaved in their social training in suborination to men.**
 * **Her husband, William Godwin, published her memoirs after her death. People where shocked to learn about her child born out of wedlock and sucide attempts. Her works were not looked at seriously again until the present feminist movement of the 1960's and 1970's.**
 * **Mary was also a intellectual radical in part of the English Jacobians.**
 * **The most famous thing that Mary published was //The// //Vindication of the Rights of Woman.//**
 * Wollstonecraft, Mary.** (2008). .Britannica Desktop Encyclopedia. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica