Mary Wollstonecraft. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Boston, 1792).
Second American edition.This pioneering work by British author Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) provided a foundation for the women's rights movement in the nineteenth century. Wollstonecraft's argument was "built on this simple principle that, if woman be not prepared by education to become the companion of man, she will stop the progress of knowledge, for truth must be common to all."
A full report of the woman's rights agitation in the State of New York, would in a measure be the history of the movement. In this State, the preliminary battles in the anti-slavery, temperance, educational, and religious societies were fought; the first Governmental aid given to higher education of woman, and her voice first heard in teachers' associations. Here the first Woman's Rights Convention was held, the first demand made for suffrage, the first society formed for this purpose, and the first legislative efforts made to secure the civil and political rights of women; commanding the attention of leading members of the bar....Here too the pulpit made the first demand for the political rights of woman. Here was the first temperance society formed by women, the first medical college opened to them, and woman first ordained for the ministry.<br>
<i>History of Woman Suffrage</i>, volume 1, page 472.
Wollstonecraft, Mary, 1759-1797, “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman,” RBSCP Exhibits, accessed January 21, 2025, https://rbscpexhibits.lib.rochester.edu/items/show/502.