A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

HarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics. ‘My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating ...

HarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics. ‘My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating graces, and viewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone.’ In the midst of revolution, when fundamental social upheaval was reshaping France and America, writer and philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft made an impassioned argument for women to have a place in this new world. Her demands laid out in this 1792 essay, to treat women as human beings deserving of a rati