It would be an endless task to trace the variety of meannesses, cares, and sorrows, into which women are plunged by the prevailing opinion that they were created rather to feel than reason, and that all the power they obtain, must be obtained by their charms and weakness. Mary WollstonecraftComposed in 1790, Mary Wollstonecraft s seminal feminist tract A Vindication of the Rights of Woman broke new ground in its demand for women s education. A Vindication remains one of history s most important and elegant broadsides against sexual oppression. In her introduction, renowned socialist feminist Sheila Rowbotham casts Wollstonecraft s life and work in a new light.