“Men have superior strength of body; but were it not for mistaken notions of beauty, women would acquire sufficient to enable them to earn their own subsistence, the true definitions of independence; and to bear those bodily inconveniences and exertions that are requisite to strengthen the mind. Let us then, by being allowed to take the same exercise as boys, not only during infancy, but youth, arrive at perfection of body, that we may know how far the nation superiority of man extends . For what reason or virtue can be expected from a creature when the seed-time of life is neglected? None; did not the winds of heaven casually scatter many useful seeds in fallow ground.”

— Mary Wollstonecraft , book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Source: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), Ch.5

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Mary Wollstonecraft 44

British writer and philosopher 1759–1797

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Mary Wollstonecraft 44

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