Click to image above to enlarge
Mary Wollstonecraft and the Dissenters of Newington Green, 1794
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759 – 1797) challenged convention both through her personal life and her writing. She wrote ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Men’, arguing for republicanism. This was swiftly followed by ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’ (1792) which developed her concerns for women’s emancipation and education and is now recognised as a classic of feminism. “The DIVINE RIGHT of husbands, like the divine right of kings, may, it is to be hoped, in this enlightened age, be contested without danger …” Seen here outside the Unitarian Chapel in Newington Green, London, where dissenters, radical Presbyterians, Baptists and non-conformists debated ideas of the Enlightenment. Mary wears a tricolour cockade, having recently returned from revolutionary France. She died soon after giving birth to Mary Shelley, author of ‘Frankenstein’.