Enlightenment & Revolutions
Mary Wollstonecraft
1759–1797 · Individual liberty
No one is free who must obey a husband.
In their words
“I do not wish them to have power over men; but over themselves.”
Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Men answered Burke with the argument that inherited power deserves no deference, and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman applied it to the household: women must be educated, independent and allowed their own judgment rather than trained into dependence. She was among the first to argue that marriage as legal subjection degrades both parties and manufactures the vices it then complains of.
Why it matters for freedom
She extended the argument for self-ownership to the half of humanity that was told it did not apply.
Who they stood against
the educational system that taught women to be pleasing instead of free