Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) was a prominent woman of the Romantic era. Wollstonecraft could not accept the then-current prejudices and stereotypes against and of women. In the Romantic era the roles of women were rigidly defined and basically a manifestation of a male dominated (patriarchal) society. In the Romantic era women were stereotyped as chaste, obedient, subservient, dependent, and fulfilled only in the marital or maternal occupation. Wollstonecraft authored many writings and works that aimed at expanding the role of women and regaining for them the identity and dignity that Wollstonecraft found such stereotypes stole from them. In works like Maria or The Wrongs of Woman and The Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Wollstonecraft expressed ideas and views about women that were not only controversial but considered downright shocking at the time. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman remains an early feminist manifesto. In Vindication, Wollstonecraft argues that society had fostered a situation in which women were condemned to ignorance and servility via male domination and definitions over and of women. This analysis will look at the rights of women during the latter half of the eighteenth century as exhibited in the works and ideas of Wollstonecraft.
Women were greatly oppressed in society during the Romantic era. Refused the right to vote, viewed as fulfilled only when in the role of mother or wife, and deemed wanton or lewd for exhibiting any hint of sexuality, women were robbed of their potential for expression and self-fulfillment in a majority of cases. Mary Wollstonecraft felt that women were socialized to artificiality, weakness of character, and secondary status and role in society compared to men. To some degree she considered both the Church and the State as having at least partial responsibility for maintaining a social system in which these characterizations were allowed to flourish. In A Vindica...