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A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Mary Wollstonecraft · 1792

Mary Wollstonecraft's 1792 feminist treatise, published a year after Olympe de Gouges's Declaration, arguing for women's education and equality.

Not by Gouges, but a contemporary British parallel to her Declaration, useful for comparing revolutionary-era feminist arguments.

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Title page of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft, printed at Boston by Peter Edes for Thomas and Andrews, Faust's Statue, No. 45, Newbury-Street, dated MDCCXCII. Includes a decorative monogram.
Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 1792. First American edition title page.

About this source

What it is

A 1792 essay by the British writer Mary Wollstonecraft, arguing that women deserve the same education and fundamental rights as men. It responds to a report by Talleyrand-Périgord that recommended only domestic education for women.

Why it matters

Published a year after Olympe de Gouges's Declaration of the Rights of Woman, this book shows that the demand for women's rights during the French Revolutionary era was not limited to France. Wollstonecraft and Gouges never met, but their works together reveal a wider Atlantic debate about whether revolutionary rights applied to women.

Look closer

  • Why might two writers in different countries be making similar arguments at the same time?
  • Who is Wollstonecraft addressing directly, and why?
  • What does the choice to dedicate the book to a politician suggest about how she hoped to create change?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Olympe de Gouges and Mary Wollstonecraft on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Printed page of the 1791 Declaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne, with the title in large capitals, a subtitle addressed to the National Assembly, and the opening Preambule paragraphs in French text.Document

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Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen

Olympe de Gouges · 1791

Painted allegory of the 1789 French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. A title plaque reads 'Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen' above two tablets of text. A seated woman with chains and a standing winged figure with a wand flank the plaque, under a radiant eye in a triangle.Document

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Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

National Constituent Assembly · 1789

Printed broadside titled 'Les Trois Urnes, ou le Salut de la Patrie, par un Voyageur Aérien' in large capitals on an orange-tinted page, with dense multi-column French text below the title.Document

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Les Trois Urnes, ou le Salut de la Patrie, par un voyageur aérien

Olympe de Gouges · 1793

Pastel-style portrait of a woman with powdered grey hair piled high, wearing a white shawl, against a dark brown and grey background. She has a slight smile and looks toward the viewer.Painting

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Portrait of Olympe de Gouges

Alexander Kucharsky

Title page scan of the 1793 French text 'Testament politique d'Olympe de Gouges', printed in serif type with a decorative rule above and below the title. The opening paragraph begins with 'O divine providence!' and is partly faded and smudged.Document

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Testament politique d'Olympe de Gouges

Olympe de Gouges · June 1793

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