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Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797)

The Palgrave Handbook of Educational Thinkers

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Abstract

This chapter introduces Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797) as a woman, mother, scholar, writer, and wife/lover. The following entry describes how her tumultuous upbringing played a role in how she viewed society and how that influenced her later writings on rights for men and women. It then moves into her influences and motivations as an eighteenth-century English woman. From there, the authors analyze her key contributions to various disciplines such as education, feminism, politics, and philosophy. The new insights modern theorists gained from (re)analyzing her key works inform many current trends in those same disciplines and comprise the next section. But as with any prolific figure, her work and ideas are not without criticism, as the Legacies and Unfinished Business section delineate. The article concludes with references and a list for further reading.

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Further Reading

  • Caputi, M. (2016). “The manly virtues”: Macaulay’s influence, Wollstonecraft’s legacy. In L. Curtis-Wendlandt, P. Gibbard, & K. Green (Eds.), Political ideas of enlightenment women (pp. 185–200). Routledge.

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  • Gatens, M. (1991). Feminism and philosophy: Perspectives on difference and equality. Wiley.

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  • Johnson, C. L. (Ed.). (2002). The Cambridge companion to Mary Wollstonecraft. Cambridge University Press.

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  • O’Brien, K., & O’Brien, K. E. (2009). Women and enlightenment in eighteenth-century Britain. Cambridge University Press.

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  • Taylor, N. (2006). The rights of woman as chimera: The political philosophy of Mary Wollstonecraft. Routledge.

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  • Tomaselli, S. (2020). Wollstonecraft: Philosophy, passion, and politics. Princeton University Press.

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  • Weiss, D. (2017). The female philosopher and her afterlives: Mary Wollstonecraft, the British novel, and the transformations of feminism, 1796–1811. Springer.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA

    Megan Ruby & Jinan El Sabbagh

Authors
  1. Megan Ruby
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  2. Jinan El Sabbagh
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Correspondence to Megan Ruby .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Educational Leadership, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, USA

    Brett A. Geier

Section Editor information

  1. University of Redlands, Redlands,, CA, USA

    Annie Knox Associate Professor

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Ruby, M., El Sabbagh, J. (2023). Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797). In: Geier, B.A. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Educational Thinkers . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81037-5_72-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81037-5_72-1

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-81037-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-81037-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EducationReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Education

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Mary Wollstonecraft
    Published:
    01 March 2024

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81037-5_72-2

  2. Original

    Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797)
    Published:
    26 November 2022

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81037-5_72-1

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