Mary Wollstonecraft is regarded as one of the founding feminist philosophers. Feminists often cite both her life and work as important influences. During her brief career, she wrote novels including a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children’s book. Wollstonecraft is best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), in which she argues that women should be given the rights to public education, holding a place in politics, and working outside of the home. She suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason.
Wollstonecraft died at the age of 38, eleven days after giving birth to her second daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin. Known as Mary Shelley, her best known work was the Gothic novel, Frankenstein who some consider the first science fiction novel.
