1792Reputable sourceWell documented
Wollstonecraft and the Rights of Woman
On the timeline · around 1792 ·
What happened
The English writer Mary Wollstonecraft turned the Enlightenment's language of reason and rights toward the half of humanity it had largely ignored. In A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), she argued that women appear inferior only because they are denied education, and that reason is not the property of men alone — demanding that women be treated as rational human beings and full citizens.
Why it matters
Wollstonecraft founded modern feminist philosophy and exposed the great blind spot of the age of reason. Her insistence that Enlightenment rights must apply to everyone laid the intellectual groundwork for the long struggle for women's equality.
Sources
- World History Encyclopedia. Mary Wollstonecraft · Reputable source