Installment 2 Mary Wollstonecraft #8

Mary Wollstonecraft's Childhood

Mary Wollstonecraft's childhood was very interesting while growing up. During this period of time, men did not think women should have any type of power and they were not allowed to do much. Most women just took care of the children and the household.Over time, this began to anger Wollstonecraft because she despised this thought in every way as she became an young adult. As a child, Wollstonecraft had a pretty wealthy family; that soon changed. Mary's father Edward John Wollstonecraft made the family go bankrupt due to him investing in a farming business. This made the family become very poor and they did endure hardship. Not only did the father make the family go bankrupt but he was also very violent and abusive. Due to her father being this way, Wollstonecraft's mother soon passed away in 1780. After the death of her mother, Mary moved out of the house to live on her own. As a young woman, Wollstonecraft spent a lot of time with her sister Eliza and her best friend Fanny. In the same year her mother passed, the three of them had built a school in Newington Green; the school was made to empower and help the growth of women. The school soon closed down in 1785 due to her best friend Fanny growing incredibly ill. 

During the year of 1786, Wollstonecraft lost her best friend but in turn she began to write. Her first time writing is when she became the translator for Joseph Johnson as a publisher of radical texts. In 1787, Mary wrote "Thoughts on the Education of Daughters" which reflected her past experiences; which entirely meant and explained the agony of intelligent women being subject to rich fools.

Wollstonecraft wrote a novel "Mary: A Fiction", which she talked about the patriarchal institution of marriage and described its affects on us women. She published this novel in 1788 and it was her most  radical and most feminine work yet. Mary's most famous and distinguished work was her book "A Vindication of the Rights of Women".In this book, she argued how people of this time had seen women as household adornments. The topic she discussed was very revolutionary simply because the way men had their outlook of women set out to be which in turn caused a lot of controversy. In 1796, Wollstonecraft soon wrote a reflective travel narrative titled "Letters Written in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway". Not only did Wollstonecraft write marvelous work in books, novels, and narratives, she had amazing and very relatable quotes. 

"Make women rational creatures, and free citizens, and they will quickly become good wives;-that is, if men do not neglect the duties of husbands and fathers"