“Mary Wollstonecraft: (1759-1797) English writer. She taught school and worked as a governess and for a London publisher. In 1797 she married William Godwin; she died days after the birth of their daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, that same year, at the age of 38. She is noted as a passionate advocate of educational and social equality for women. Her early Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787) foreshadowed her mature work on the place of women in society. A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792), whose core is a plea for equality of education between men and women. The Vindication is widely regarded as the founding document of modern feminism.”
Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.
Mark's Text Terminal 