A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Penguin Classics)

'I do not wish them to have power over men; but over themselves'

Penguin Classics edition of Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, edited with an introduction and notes by Miriam Brody.

Writing in an age when the call for the rights of man had brought revolution to America and France, Mary Wollstonecraft produced her own declaration of female independence in 1792. Passionate and forthright, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman attacked the prevailing view of docile, decorative femininity, and instead laid out principles of emancipation: an equal education for girls and boys, and end to prejudice and a plea for women to become defined by their profession, not their partner. Wollstonecraft's work was received with a mixture of admiration and outrage – Walpole called her 'a hyena in petticoats' – and it established her as the mother of modern feminism.

This revised edition contains a new chronology, updated further reading, greatly expanded notes and an updated introduction. The text of the second edition of 1792, including original punctuation, is printing with emendations listed.