ABSTRACT
Mary Wollstonecraft, who argued in favor of a new role for women in late-eighteenth-century European society, is considered one of the earliest modern feminists. In 1784 Wollstonecraft opened a girls’ school with a close friend, which she closed after her friend died. In 1786 she accepted a job as a governess for an aristocratic family in Ireland. However, she soon decided to pursue a literary career, unusual for women at that time. Returning to England after one year, Wollstonecraft worked for her supportive publisher, Joseph Johnson, translating foreign works and reviewing books. Inspired by the ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity proposed by the French Revolution, Wollstonecraft argued that the role of women needed to change from that of social ornament and mere object of male sexual desire to one based on virtue and the value of motherhood to society. Women, she argued, must establish their identity apart from men if they are to reason independently.
