Mary Wollstonecraft

1759–1797 · English writer, philosopher & pioneering feminist

Mary Wollstonecraft was an English writer and philosopher whose 1792 treatise A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is a founding text of feminist thought, arguing that women appear inferior only because they are denied education. She died in 1797, days after giving birth to Mary Shelley, the future author of Frankenstein — a family link that fuels the frequent misattribution of this very quote.

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“I do not wish women to have power over men, but over themselves”

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