#11: Mary Wollstonecraft
Long before the word “feminism” became common, Mary Wollstonecraft was already asking why women were denied the education and independence so often treated as obvious goods for men. She was born in London in 1759 and wrote with a directness that still feels bracing. Her best-known work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, argued that women were not naturally inferior but often kept in a state of weakness by poor education and restrictive social expectations.
