A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
within the Women’s Human Rights
Tradition, 1739 – 2015
EILEEN HUNT BOTTING AND MADELINE CRONIN
1739 “Sophia, a Person of Quality” pushes the language of rights
into the forefront of the European querelle des femmes with
the publication of Woman not inferior to man: or, A short and
modest Vindication of the natural Right of the Fair-Sex to a
perfect Equality of Power, Dignity, and Esteem, with the Men
in London.
1790 The French philosopher and politician Condorcet defends
women’s full and formal inclusion in citizenship in the revo-
lutionary republic in his essay On the Admission of Women to
the Rights of Citizenship.
1791 Frenchwoman Olympe de Gouges publishes her essay Decla-
ration of the Rights of Woman and Citizen in critical response
to the omission of women’s rights from the 1789 French
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
1792 Publication of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in Lon-
don, Paris, Lyon, Boston, and Philadelphia.
Second edition of the Rights of Woman published in Lon-
don, as revised and approved by Wollstonecraft.
The French edition of the Rights of Woman is reviewed by
Julian de Velasco in Madrid, Spain.
1793 Rights of Woman published in Dublin. The fi rst German edi-
tion is introduced by the progressive educator and friend of
Wollstonecraft, Christian Salzmann — conservatively empha-
sizing the value of women’s improved education for husbands.
1794 Matthew Carey reprints the Rights of Woman twice in
Philadelphia.