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Mary's stay in Portugal
Although this particular event may not have been the beginning of Mary's belief in equal rights for women, it was likely a sparking event as it was an unpleasant one. Here, Mary took a trip to Portugal with her pregnant friend, Fanny Blood. Not long after the arrival in Lisbon, Portugal, Fanny and her newborn died. It can only be assumed that this was both heartbreaking and frustrating to Mary, leading her to want to avenge her friend in some way, perhaps through equal rights advocacy. -
Thoughts on the Education of Daughters...
Upon Mary's return to England, her newest piece of writing: "Thoughts on the Education of Daughters: with Reflections on Female Conduct in the more important Duties of Life", served as a means of stress-relief in a time of financial stress and other concerns. This work would later serve as an ideological basis for many of her future works that were essential parts of her equal rights advocacy. -
Wollstonecraft's Anthology
Mary's anthology: "The Female Reader; Miscellaneous Pieces in Prose and Verse; Selected from the Best Writers and Disposed under Proper Heads; for the Improvement of Young Women", finished two years after her original work, was the next event that contributed to her overall equal rights advocacy. This work built upon her previous work, in further detail. She had published this anthology under the name 'Mr. Cresswick, teacher of Elocution.' -
The Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Arguably considered Mary's most socially influential pieces of literature, she began this work in 1791 and published it in 1792. Her work was published under her own name, and was certainly a turning point in her career as a political activist, and social advocate. She was prompted to write this as a defense for R. Price, and in response to Edmund Burke's work. Although not the beginning of her career as a writer and social advocate, this was potentially the most important event. -
References
Tomaselli, S. (2020) Mary Wollstonecraft. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2020/entries/wollstonecraft/. Photos taken from: https://www.worldatlas.com/flags/portugal https://conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2021/02/19/thoughts-on-thoughts-on-the-education-of-daughters-by-mary-wollstonecraft/ https://www.amazon.com/Miscellaneous-Selected-Disposed-Improvement-Cresswick/dp/1379970237 https://www.britannica.com/topic/A-Vindication-of-the-Rights-of-Woman