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The Unsex'd Females

Richard Polwhele · 1798

A 1798 satirical poem by Richard Polwhele attacking Wollstonecraft and other women writers as dangerously radical.

A direct attack on Wollstonecraft, showing the conservative backlash she provoked as a symbol of radical womanhood.

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Title page of 'The Unsex'd Females; a Poem, addressed to the author of The Pursuits of Literature' by the Rev. Richard Polwhele, with an added sketch of P. Pindar, printed in New-York and re-published by Wm. Cobbett, dated 1800.
Richard Polwhele, The Unsex'd Females, a Poem. London, 1798 (American edition, New York, 1800).

About this source

What it is

The Unsex'd Females, a Poem was written by the Reverend Richard Polwhele and published anonymously in London in 1798. It attacks women writers influenced by Enlightenment and revolutionary ideas, focusing especially on Mary Wollstonecraft.

Why it matters

The poem is an example of the conservative backlash in Britain against the French Revolution and against women who claimed intellectual and political rights. Polwhele singled out Wollstonecraft, whose unconventional life had just been described in William Godwin's frank biography, as the leading symbol of dangerous radical womanhood. It shows the hostility Wollstonecraft and her ideas faced after her death.

Look closer

  • Why might Polwhele have chosen poetry, rather than prose, to attack Wollstonecraft?
  • What does this poem reveal about the risks women writers faced for expressing controversial views?
  • How does knowing the political context of the 1790s change how we read this attack?

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

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