Mary was a famous 18th century British author, prolific writer and advocate for human rights, born this day in the year 1759. As one of the first feminist philosophers, Mary wrote the famous work “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman”, which has been passed down, century to century, as one of the most important pieces validating the equality of women and men.
What makes Mary’s story even more incredible is the fact that she was a suffragette in the time of the French Revolution and actually lived in France for a number of years, watching acquaintances, and even friends, suffer the fate of the guillotine. Sadly, Mary’s life ended prematurely at the age of 38 when she passed away 10 days after the birth of her second child, Mary Shelley, who went on to write the famous Gothic novel, Frankenstein.
Though it was revealed after her death that Mary had lived an unorthodox lifestyle for that time - having two children out of wedlock - her works have greatly influenced so many great female authors that followed her, including her own daughter.
Her other articles, including “Thoughts on the Education of Daughters” and “A Vindication of the Rights of Men”, only touch the surface of a career that included a children’s book (“Original Stories from Real Life”), treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, several novels and unfinished manuscripts
Mary was the precursor of so many feminists that have lived in modern centuries or have been fictionalized in film. We can see many positive female role models even within Sullivan Entertainment productions. Toppy Bailey in Wind at My Back, for example, was living in the time immediately after the women’s movement at the beginning of the 20th century. She experiences the embarrassment of living through a public separation from her husband and a newfound state of living as an independent woman. Her path to becoming an authoress, and her wish to write under a pseudonym in order to avoid town gossip, is also an indication of the guidelines for “appropriate conduct” that existed.
In Road to Avonlea, we have Janet King as an example of a pioneering suffragette. She must overcome disapproval from the entire town, including her own husband, when she takes up the suffragette cause. It takes the tragic economic plight of Maude Craig, mother of Peter Craig, to show just how helpless so many women of her class were at this time in history.
Even L.M. Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables and the books that inspired Road to Avonlea, received a lot of criticism and wariness from the citizens of her town when she went off to university and began a writing career. Although Maud’s work does not seem particularly controversial at an quick glance, her decision to earn her own way in life was not a common practice at this time.
