Mary Wollstonecraft's work

Thoughts on the Education of Daughters: With Reflections on Female Conduct in the More Important Duties of Life was first published in 1787 by her friend Joseph Johnson. It was written after she spent some time as a lady's companion to Sarah Dawson, who she did not care for. The book covers many things from how to raise a child to advocating for better education for women. Mary gets some backlash for this today, as much of what she speaks on is about how the better education is about how to make a woman a better wife and mother. However, she does encourage women to teach…

Mary: A Fiction is a novel published in 1788 after Mary had spent a year as a governess to an Irish family and officially decided to become an author by trade. Much of this novel stems from her own life as the main character, Mary (subsequently named after her), lost her best friend as well, among other things. Wollstonecraft not only made strides with this story by making the main character a woman confident in her sexuality, but also she was able to critique the current time's view on women and marriage, as the character Mary was labeled a genius. 

A Vindication of the Rights of Men was a pamphlet published in 1970 in response to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France. Where Burke supported the monarchy and the status quo, Wollstonecraft challenged every aspect of it, advocating for the formation of a republic. She tore down not only his rhetoric about the idea of the right of succession by birth but also his word use and sexist portrayal of Marie Antoinette. It was first published anonymously but was later published with her name attached, the pamphlet ultimately becoming a big success. …

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is what Mary Wollstonecraft is most well known for. It was published in 1792 in response to Talleyrand-Périgord's pamphlet on National Education. She argued for the cultivation of women's education as it would help develop their "virtue." She challenges that because women's education is not as set as men's education, there is more room for problems to arise, and that women cannot struggle for the same knowledge and virtue that men have because they are limited. Showing the time period in which she lived, she did state that men and women…

Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark came after Wollstonecraft spent time going around Europe helping Gilbert Imlay, the father of her first child, find a ship that he had lost. This collection of 25 letters was published in 1796. It is mostly a travel narrative as Mary had hoped to regain the affections of Imlay by working with him. Although she was ceremoniously granted the title of, Mrs. Mary Imlay, the marriage was never official and the repeated rejections and betrayal are reflected in these letters. As Wollstonecraft was ultimately a…