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Philosophical Haiku

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)

by Terence Green

Liberty still-born
Chill phrases cast out by men
Ourselves yet in chains

Mary Wollstonecraft, like her contemporary Thomas Paine, was one of those ‘whining liberals’ who made the conservative philosopher Edmund Burke’s stomach churn. But in one respect at least, she was even worse than Paine: she actually thought women should have the same rights as men! What madness!

After Burke published his Reflections on the Revolution in France, in which he patiently explained why poor people and women shouldn’t go around upsetting apple carts, Wollstonecraft responded with Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790). Good title for a feminist? Not really. So Mary quickly banged out another work, Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792).

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