Mary Sidney Herbert Legacy

Mary Wollstonecraft was a pioneer in feminist thinking and writing. She was influenced by Thomas Paine that all women should have equal rights. When Wollstonecraft was younger she witnessed her mom being verbally and physically abused by her father. Her father referred to her mother as a piece of property who cannot have the same future as him due to her sex. After her mother’s death, Wollstonecraft decided to make her own livelihood with her sister Eliza and her best friend Fanny.

During the Age of Enlightenment in the late eighteenth century, Mary Wollstonecraft presented a radical essay, A Vindication of the Rights of Women, that shed light on the largest, underrepresented groups of the time, women. The essay voiced the inequalities women at the time faced and called upon Wollstonecraft’s audience to invoke a revolution for the rights of women. Through her writing, she presented a compelling argument that slowly allowed women to question their “place” in society and demand change to the British social order. While these changes did not happen quickly, her work sparked the feminist movements through its unique message and called upon women to demand equality through the Match Girls Strike and Women’s Suffrage

She was a mother, a moral and political philosopher, a writer, and a feminist. Mary Wollstonecraft was the ideal image of what represented the push towards modern feminism. Some may even consider her as the founding mother of modern feminism itself. Much of Wollstonecraft’s literature is influenced by her own life experiences. In 1785, Wollstonecraft took on an employment opportunity as a governess. While spending most of her time there, she had a moment of epiphany where she realized that she was not suited for domestic work. Soon after, she returned to London and became a translator and wrote for a well-known publisher and discovered her love of writing. Eventually, years later she was then able to publish her most notable work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is still a very popular book which can be seen as a guide to becoming a better citizen and understanding feminism in a critical context. This essay will argue that Mary Wollstonecraft is still relevant to the feminist cause today as her views portrayed in her book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman are still relatable to many of the feminist issues that currently exist around the world. This essay will do so by comparing how her views in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman can still be used as guiding principles to tackle feminist matters.

Lady Mary Wroth was born on October 18, 1587, into a wealthy family connected to Elizabeth I and James I. Many women in the 1700s did not have formal education, but the royal and rich were taught by private home tutors which opened up more opportunities for women. Women who receive private education would use the knowledge to write epitaphs or translations. Wroth led the way by becoming the first women to complete a full-length prose romance and sonnet sequence, steering away from the traditional genres women were appointed to.( CITE) With sonnet 9 Worth realizes the patriarchal society she lives in and has the speaker asks males to question their own happiness and bliss, “Have you content?

The following essay shall asses to what extent Mary Prince’s story was published in her own words after being recorded down by Susanna Strickland and then edited by Thomas Pringle for publication.

Mary was the daughter of a revolutionary author Mary Wollstonecraft who is regarded as one of the earliest feminist writers by the critics (Zimmerman, 2007, 65-123). By some of the

The Romantic Period built an environment where women were painted with flowery diction (Wollstonecraft, 216) and were incapable of independence. The Rights of Woman became a crucial topic, particularly in poetry which allowed women the freedom of expression. Accordingly, during the early eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, women writers did not need the prop of their male contemporaries like suggested. Evidently, women were able, successful, and professional writers in their own right. In fact, women often influenced male writers (Dustin, 42). Both Mary Wollstonecraft and Anna Letitia Barbauld are evidence that women did not need to rely on their male peers to become successful poets. Consequently, many poets took inspiration from them (Dustin, 32). In The Rights of Woman and Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Anna Letitia Barbauld and Mary Wollstonecraft had contrasting ideas. Barbauld’s The Rights of Woman was a documented reaction towards Wollstonecraft’s extremely controversial Vindication. Henceforth, both indicate a separate message for the Rights of the Woman. Assumedly, Barbauld misinterpreted Wollstonecraft and readings of The Rights of Woman in the twenty-first century appear antifeminist as a result.

Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672) and Phyllis Wheatley (1753–1784), although over a century apart, were pioneers of women’s American literature. There are interesting similarities as well as differences between these two women, but the obstacles they would each face, and ultimately overcome would help to pave the road for women all over the world. Bradstreet, a well educated woman from a wealthy, puritan family, and Wheatley, a slave taught to read and write by her owner, would make history with their published poems.

As a person who aided in the construction of the social work profession, Mary E. Richmond (1861-1921) is best known for her role in the development of casework practice. Her studies helped build the foundation of direct assessment. In conjunction with her studies, she is also remembered for her remarkable ability to perform research and teach communities about the topics of social work. One of her most notable achievements is her representation of the modern idea of “client in environment”, which she labeled the “social diagnosis”. During her time, Mary was a key player in focusing the transition from charity work to social work (Szymoniak, 2015). Mary founded the Pennsylvania Child Labor Committee, the juvenile court, the Housing Association and the Public Charities Association (NASW, 2004). She is also the author of numerous publications that illustrate the importance of social work, and social practice.

Mary Wollstonecraft, who was born during the age of enlightenment in the 18th century, is one of the most prominent feminists in women’s history. Her book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman led her to become one of the first feminists, advocating for the rights of women. Born in a time where women’s education was neither prominent nor important, Wollstonecraft was raised with very little education. However, events in her life influenced her to begin writing, such as the way her father, Edward John Wollstonecraft treated her mother, “into a state of wearied servitude” (Kries,Steven)1. In 1792, she published Vindication on the Rights of Woman, which is one of the most prominent feminist pieces to date. This book is considered a reply to

Anne Bradstreet, a well-educated woman, strong in her Puritan beliefs, captured her thoughts by writing poetry, which included works such as “Contemplations” which was preceded by “The Prologue”. Written in the mid 1600’s as the colonies were beginning to form, Bradstreet’s poem included themes of religion, nature, and family. Although she claims to have written them without the intent of publication, a collection of her poetry was printed in 1650. She identifies her struggles with faith, yet writes from the view of a faithful woman who recognizes the superior role of men in her society. Although appearing to be modest and undermining her talents, it seems evident that Bradstreet was, in reality, confident that as a well educated women she was capable of writing just as well as a man. Although it is claimed that Anne Bradstreet did not intend for her writing to be published, her poetry utilizes a feminist tone and theme of higher education conveying her hidden desires to prove herself as a female author.

Kimberly Anne Coles’ novel, Religion, Reform, and Women’s Writing in Early Modern England mainly focuses on women who emerged as published authors in England during the 16th century. Kimberly Anne Coles’ main argument and thesis can be found in the introduction of the novel entitled as “Introduction: Making Sects: Women as Reformers, Writers, and Subjects in Reformation England”. Coles’ main thesis for her novel is that the women’s writings that she discusses in her novel are considered as the most important and most influential works of 16th century England. For example, Kimberly Anne Coles states “This study therefore examines women as writers, and women as written, during the period surrounding the crucial shift to Protestantism in England.”

Although there are some potential subversive elements within this text, especially regarding the education of properly domestic upper-class women, overall a close reading of this story seems to offer a poignantly non-feminist message. It is unproductive to position Susanna Centlivre’s The Basset Table as a proto-feminist text because it seems to essentialize female speech and obscure the ways in which Centlivre is participating and perpetuating the marginalizing and patriarchal discourse of the Restoration Period. Granted it is important to contextualize Centlivre as one of the view popular female playwrights of English history and to recognize the unusual proliferation of female literary and dramatic voices during the Eighteenth century, this should not take president over a close reading of the deeply seeded patriarchal underpinnings of her text. Through a comparison of William Congreve’s The Way of the World and Susanna Centlivre’s The Basset Table I will show the similar ways in which both of these texts, one in which is often criticized for its sexist and satirical treatment of female characters and the other which is hailed as progressive, engage with and perpetuate patriarchal anxieties around the potential destabilizing power of widows through their participation in the public environment and the

The fantastic rumors of Lord Byron’s life cannot match the sensational reality of Mary Robinson’s. Along with her successful writing, she was an actress, fashion icon, and mistress of the Prince of Wales. Compared to her contemporaries,

Isabella Whitney was possibly born to a middle-class Cheshire family at Coole Pilate, near Nantwich, in the middle of the sixteenth-century. She is a middle child, having an older sister, two younger sisters and one or two other brothers. Growing up in a big family, she has been disregarded by scholars and it is still unclear how she achieves her literary knowledge. Whitney is well-known as the sister of Geoffrey Whitney, a notable author of A Choice of Emblemes (1586), because of her contribution to his book. She starts her career at a very young age and owns various remarkable printed works including her first miscellany The Copy of a Letter (1566-7), A Sweet Nosegay (1573), rewrites the adages in Sir Hugh Plat’s Floures of Philisophie (1572)