What Mary Wollstonecraft thinks about government
English moral and political philosopher (1759 to 1797); author of A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790) and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792).
Mary Wollstonecraft did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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3 dated positions, 1790 to c. 1792, in their own words. Our reading of what Mary Wollstonecraft has said — not written or endorsed by them.
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Our readingEnlarging women's minds would end blind obedience, which is why tyrants keep women ignorant
Their wordsStrengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience; but, as blind obedience is ever sought for by power, tyrants and sensualists are in the right when they endeavour to keep women in the dark, because the former only want slaves, and the latter a play-thing.
↗A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsI may excite laughter, by dropping an hint, which I mean to pursue, some future time, for I really think that women ought to have representatives, instead of being arbitrarily governed without having any direct share allowed them in the deliberations of government.
↗A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsSecurity of property! Behold, in a few words, the definition of English liberty. And to this selfish principle every nobler one is sacrificed.
↗A Vindication of the Rights of Men (2nd ed., 1790)en.wikisource.org All 5 from this book