Mary wollstonecraft

Adriana Gutierrez
12/6/2011
AP European History
Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft has long been appreciated as a major political thinker; she also made important contributions to educational theory and practice. Wollstonecraft was a feminist, in A vindication of the rights of women she argues for the right of women to be educated. Her work to reach women´s equality led to her beingthe founder of the British Women´s Right Movement.
Wollstonecraft´s opinion of men came about as early as her childhood. She was born in April, 1759 in Spitafields, London to Edward John Wollstonecraft and Elizabeth Dickson. Mary Wollstonecraft received her education from older people to whom she was acquainted to. Late during her teenage years, Wollstonecraft developed a more negative viewtowards men when she saw her sister disappointed by her marriage.
Her dad was very violent and he did not have a stable life, he inherited wealth from his father, but spent the entire fortune. Mary saw how her family was affected, as well as their economical situation. She moved from place to place with her family looking for a settled home. Mary received most of her education when she traveled as acompanion to an older woman, Mrs. Dawson. She was one of the few lucky young women of her time who received education, later to become an intellectual figure. She also received many of her early education with a neighboring clergyman, Mr. Claire, who helped her develop intellectually.
Wollstonecraft moved into her sister´s, Eliza Wollstonecraft, house. Eliza was already a married woman. Mary wasnot so happy with the man. She was disappointed by the way her sister was being treated and believed that her bad condition was due to this. Mary decided to help Eliza get a divorce. From this point forward Mary Wollstonecraft built a perspective on man. She believed that women were not inferior and that they should be treated equally and not as subjects to men.
As Wollstonecraft found her place inlife, she also played a large role in the development of education. Since she was a feminist, she demanded that women should have the right of education. She believed that this education needed to be equal as the one that men received and that women should be able to develop intellectually as much as they could. Mary opened a school for girls at Newington, Green with Eliza and her closest friendFanny Bloody.
During intellectual developments, such as the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, women had an opportunity to enter into that world of new thinking by their social circles. Wollstonecraft was able to build stronger views and opinions about life when she discussed various subject manners with her friends´ friends. As Mary worked in the development of her school, thisexperience leads her to a new community called the Newington Green Circle. This groups consisted of liberal-minded intellectuals, whom were headed by a Unitarian minister, Richard Price. She became a close friend of Richard Price, who introduced her to Joseph Priestley, William Godwin, and Joseph Johnson.
Wollstonecraft´s first works were inspired for young girls. She wrote about education rights aswell as books for an entertaining purpose. Wollstonecraft was in London when she decided that she wanted to become a permanent writer.
Mary decided to close her school because of the economic condition and later writes her first book, “Thoughts of educational daughters”. In this book she proposed the same type of education for girls as that proposed for boys, Mary Wollstonecraft also went beyond andproposed that they be educated together, which was even more radical than anything proposed before. The idea of co-educational schooling was simply regarded as nonsense by many educational thinkers of the time.
She accepts to become the governess of the daughters of a Lord. As governess Mary traveled to many places which permitted her to have a broader view of European life and especially...