New ideas or concepts seldom begin as ‘Big Bang’ theories; like a minute spark they tend to smoulder and only slowly gain momentum until one day, if and when a strong wind blows to fan the flames, they may ignite into something all-consuming.  

Such was the spark lit by Mary Wollstonecraft with her innovative 1792 publication ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’. In making the profound statement about her own sex, “I do not wish them to have power over men but over themselves,” she paved the way for a metaphorical wind to ultimately blow away the belief that a woman was a possession of a man, be it her husband or father; she was a mere ‘chattel’. It is my view that the equal rights enshrined in law today can be traced back to her controversial words committed to paper over two hundred years ago.  

Born in 1759, Mary Wollstonecraft spent her formative years in the London borough of Spitalfields where she witnessed her father’s violence towards her mother and his squandering of the family’s money, including her own inheritance. Given it is now an accepted fact that exposure to such acts in youth often transition into social, moral or ethical reactions in later life, it seems highly likely her father’s behaviour lay at the root of her conviction that a woman should not be subservient to a man.  

Her publication followed that of Thomas Paine whose own treatise, ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Man’ formed the basis of constitutions drawn up by the United States of America and of France. Both authors were acknowledged as an integral part of the Age of Enlightenment, a period in which old orders were challenged, in particular that of slavery. Mary Wollstonecraft supported the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act 1807, although she died before it came into Law. She used its theological basis to highlight the ‘domestic slavery’ of women for whom the opportunities afforded by education or economic and social freedoms were denied. It is sobering to think that while slavery was completely abolished in British colonies in 1833, women in this country had to wait far longer to throw off the shackles. 

She became a free-thinker and some would argue, a ‘free-wheeler’ given she had two unconventional liaisons before finally marrying William Goodwin in 1797. The progeny of their union, a daughter Mary , became the wife of the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley who was himself not averse to flouting convention! 

Having sown the seeds of equal rights, Mary Wollstonecraft’s radical thinking staggered through Victoria’s reign almost undercover, its chance of breaking the constraints of the era’s straight-laced values, minimal. Whilst these constraints may only have been surface impediments for men, many of whom maintained separate public and personal personas, they asserted a straggle-hold on the fairer sex.  

It took the suffragette movement to fan the flickering spark of equality into a meaningful flame when it took up the mantle and demanded votes for women in the early years of the twentieth century. Such was the entrenched views of the male dominated society however, that not even the extraordinary efforts of women to keep the wheels of industry and armaments turning during the First World War convinced the politicians of the day to give women the vote until 1928.  

As the 1900s trundled through the decades progress continued in small victories until following the Second World War , in which yet again women took on men’s work or served in the Forces, significant bonfires were made of inequalities in the divorce laws, women ability to crack career glass ceilings and the rights of women to decide on matters of their own mental and physical health. 

There is still some way to go but everything is possible as our first woman Prime Minister demonstrated when she took office on 4 May 1979. ‘The Iron Lady’ , a grocer’s daughter from Grantham, Lincolnshire, illustrated in no uncertain terms how far the fairer sex has come since Mary Wollstonecraft wrote down her wish for women. 

As with anything, there are pros and cons of radical thinking and some would argue that in striving for equal rights women have sacrificed their femininity. There is weight to this argument in that women do not have the natural strength of men, nor in most cases, the ability to be as emotionally detached. Neither examples of masculine advantage gives men the right to be misogynistic. 

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On 10 December 1948 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the following:  

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”  

It is interesting that even in making such an important statement about equality the male gender is still employed! 

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