A Day in the Life of Mary Wollstonecraft: Mother of Modern Feminism

By Antonio | Feature

London, Autumn 1791 — The morning fog clings to the River Thames like a whisper, and in a modest home tucked within the heart of Somers Town, Mary Wollstonecraft is already at her writing desk—her quill scratching thoughts that will echo through centuries.

The 32-year-old philosopher, writer, and unrelenting advocate for women’s rights is not yet famous, though her pen is beginning to make waves. Months earlier, she published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, a groundbreaking treatise that challenged the social order and demanded equal education for girls. Today, however, her focus is narrower—and no less revolutionary: a letter to a friend, a critique of French politics, and a chapter in her next book.

6:00 AM — Tea, Ink, and Revolution

Wollstonecraft rises early, not out of obligation, but conviction. Tea is her companion as she faces a cold hearth and a colder society. For women in 18th-century England, the morning often begins in silence. But Mary writes. Her fingers are ink-stained before the city stirs.

The streets outside hum with the carriages of men heading to Parliament, but Wollstonecraft wages her own campaign indoors—against ignorance, injustice, and submission. “I do not wish women to have power over men,” she wrote just months before, “but over themselves.”

9:00 AM — Ideas and Isolation

By mid-morning, she reviews correspondence from publishers. She has few allies, fewer patrons, and many critics. But solitude doesn’t weaken her—it fuels her fire. Today, she debates Rousseau’s vision of women as passive creatures, merely born to please.

Outside, the public may scoff at a woman who dares to think like a man. Inside, Mary pens rebuttals that slice like a blade.

12:00 PM — Bread and Books

Lunch is plain—often bread, cheese, and fruit—but the mind feast continues. She reads Paine, Locke, and the latest reports from revolutionary France. To Mary, revolution is not just an event—it’s a mindset. One she insists must include women.

She sometimes visits her friend and publisher, Joseph Johnson, where writers, radicals, and thinkers gather. They discuss philosophy, politics, and art. Mary speaks as an equal—though few allow her the courtesy.

3:00 PM — An Uneasy Freedom

Afternoons bring walks, often solitary ones. Mary strolls through Clerkenwell or along the Thames, the city grime soaking into her worn boots. On these walks, she reflects on her past: her violent father, her troubled relationships, and the sorrow of a sister she helped escape an abusive marriage.

Her feminism is not theoretical. It is lived.

7:00 PM — The Quiet Rebellion

Evenings are quieter. Letters are written. Candles flicker. She rereads drafts by the fire, sometimes sharing passages with her young daughter Fanny, who sits quietly nearby with a book of her own.

She is not yet the mother of Mary Shelley—author of Frankenstein—but she is already mothering a revolution.

11:00 PM — Before the Darkness

Sleep is brief and restless. She fears obscurity, misinterpretation, and the way society punishes women for daring to be complex. But even as the fire burns low and London sleeps, Mary Wollstonecraft remains awake—her thoughts marching forward, her words preparing to outlive her.

She doesn’t know that within a decade, she will die shortly after childbirth. Or that her ideas will be buried, then resurrected centuries later. She doesn’t know she will be called “the mother of modern feminism.”

But she believes—fiercely—that her life matters. And she writes like the world depends on it.

Because one day, it will.

🔍 Side Note: Who Was Mary Wollstonecraft?

Born in 1759, Wollstonecraft was a self-taught writer, philosopher, and advocate for women's rights. Her Vindication books laid the foundation for feminist political thought. She dared to live independently, criticize marriage, and raise her daughters outside convention. Her influence would later shape thinkers from John Stuart Mill to Simone de Beauvoir.