Mary Wollstonecraft, a product of the Enlightenment, Romanticism , and the American and French Revolutions, was born in the 1750's. She was the child of a marginal gentry farmer and an unloving mother. She began her protests of thecondition of women at an early age by protecting her mother from her father's abuse and resenting her brother's favored position.
Mary was a passionate, generous, and demanding girl. Shedecided at an early age to be independent. This may not seem that shocking in today's society, but in her time period gentry women did notwork outside the home regardless of how poor they were. At the age of nineteen she took a position as a paid companion. At twenty-one she declared that she would never marry. She had witnessed her father's tyranny over her mother and did not desire the same for herself. Marriage gave the husband legal ownership of his wife, her property, and their children and a woman could not obtain a divorce. By being against marriage, she was far ahead of her time. The ultimate goal for women of the 1700's was a good marriage and children. Her first major act of social defiance was rescuing her sister, Eliza, from a miserable marriage even though Eliza had to leave her child behind. Mary realized that the only way to be truly free was to remain unmarried.
Over the next seven years Mary worked as a governess. Unfortunately the work was frustrating for her because she was so intelligent and ambitious. Thus at the age of twenty-eight she wrote a semi-autobiographical novel Maria . She moved to London to become "the first of a new genus" of women, a full-time professional writer and editor specializing in women and children. She worked for the liberal publisher Joseph Johnson.
In 1789 the French Revolution began which led to the beginning of a new epoch "in which immemorial misery, injustice, and constrictions were to be eradicated, and in which man had the power to reshape the world. Wollstonecraft, previously uninterested in politics, became inspired and radicalized by the improvements she now thought were possible for humanity. In 1790 she wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Men an esaay expounding the humanitarian ideals brought forth by the French Revolution. This inspired her to apply the rights of man to the woman's condition and in 1792 published the feminist social study A Vindication of the Rights of Woman . This study was the first to make women's rights into a cause. Her demand for "JUSTICE for one-half of the human race" was too revolutionary but she did find a following among radicals and educated women and succeeded in beginning the trend toward regarding women as an important socialforce.
Later that same year, however, Mary defied her assertion of sexual independence and became infatuated with Henry Fuseli , a brilliant Romantic painter and married man. After being spurned by Fuseli in 1792 she left for Paris. At the age of 34 she began an affair with an rakish American frontiersman, Gilbert Imlay. When war broke out between England and France, Imlay declared that Mary was his wife in order to save her from prison or death. Gilbert Imaly and Mary Wollstonecraft, however, were never married. In May 1794, Mary and Gilbert had a daughter, who they named Fanny. Mary began to expect a more serious committment from Imlay but she was too "soaring" and "serious" for him. He left her and returned to England on "business" and lived with an actress. Mary followed, tried to sway him, was rejected, went to Scandanavia on a business trip for him and attempted suicide twice.
By early 1796 her passion began to wear out and she returned to London a tragic Romantic celebrity. By August she became close to William Godwin, the famous novelist and philosopher. They had previously met in 1791. By late November, Mary Wollstonecraft was pregnant. In March of 1797 they married at St. Pancras church. Many people sneered at this union because Mary had been known as "Mrs. Imlay" in order to provide a name for Fanny. Since in this time period women could not divorce, when Mary married Godwin it became apparent that she had never previously been married. Conservatives feared the union of the two intellectuals and others ostracized them. Friends and admirers, however, found them to be the "most extraordinary married pair in existence". Mary began writing The Wrongs of Women: or Maria and during the summer of 1797 couple awaited the birth of their child.
A baby girl was born August 30th. The placenta would not expel and a physician had to operate. Unfortunately an infection arose and Mary Wollstonecraft died on September 10th. William Godwin, who spent all but the last six months of his life alone, was left with two young daughters. He was determined to raise them and also began to to write Memoirs of the Author of the Vindication of the Rights of Women.