This thesis has investigated the life and publications of Mary Wollstonecraft. The
thesis is divided in to three chapters the first chapter explores the political and social
context of late Eighteenth century England in which Wollstonecraft lived the majority of
her life. It then moves on to discuss the 'Revolution Controversy' and Wollstonecraft's
contribution to that debate. Giving specific attention to A Vindication of the Rights of
Man as it is Wollstonecraft's first political publication, and was the first published
response to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France. Without first
publishing A Vindication of the Rights of Man, Wollstonecraft could not have published
her most famous work.
Next the second chapter investigates Eighteenth century education, and how
Wollstonecraft ideas on changing the nature of education would help reform society in
her eyes. Education was recognized as having special significance by many
Enlightenment philosophers, this thesis looks at the contribution of John Locke and Jean
Jacques Rousseau to educational theory, and they ways in which Wollstonecraft
responded to their ideas. In the final chapter the inclusive nature of Wollstonecraft's
gender theory is considered. Wollstonecraft is widely recognised as publishing what
became for many the founding document of modern western feminism. What is given
less recognition is that Wollstonecraft was in fact interested in broad social reform,
similar to many other Enlightenment philosophers, Wollstonecraft's social theory
included changing education and socialisation for both women and men. Society could
not be reformed without changing social and educational practices with regard to both
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men and women. Wollstonecraft furthered the contemporary debate on the rights of man
to include the rights of woman. Wollstonecraft criticised the unnatural distinctions of
gender and class, setting out in both Vindications the negative consequences for the
character of both men and women. Another less recognised aspect of Wollstonecraft's
philosophy which this thesis has highlighted is the vital role that religion played, and its
implications for her ideas. This aspect of Wollstonecraft's thought has tended to be over
looked by many Wollstonecraft scholars, who try to place Wollstonecraft in some kind of
political and social continuum which I think misses the revolutionary and far sighted
nature of Wollstonecraft's philosophy. In taking a historicist approach or understanding
to Wollstonecraft, by reading Wollstonecraft in the terms of the political and social
environment of the late eighteenth century, it becomes easier to understand the radical
nature of Wollstonecraft's ideas, and the personal hardships she faced as both a woman
and a member of the lower middle class.
