ABSTRACT
When it was first published in 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman sold well, and many British liberal journals reviewed it positively. Critics are now more likely to focus on its status as a document of the history of philosophy and feminism, than debate it as a polemical political text or guide to education. Conservative readers, meanwhile, attacked Wollstonecraft as a dangerous radical in the tradition of the political philosopher Thomas Paine. One of the most important responses to Rights of Woman came from Wollstonecraft's husband William Godwin. The perception of Wollstonecraft's personal life as scandalous or unorthodox had an important effect on the reception of Rights of Woman. Nevertheless, some of its central points remain provocative, especially Wollstonecraft's argument that feminine characteristics are caused by education and environment, an argument founded on a controversial rejection of gender essentialism.
