Mary Wollstonecraft was an English writer and advocate for womens rights and equality, especially in regard to education who lived in Southwark.

In 1792 Wollstonecraft published her work A Vindication of the Rights of Women, a book where she calls for women and men to be educated and treated equally. In her book she argues that the educational system (a system which she was part of as she had been a teacher and a governess) deliberately trained women to be ‘frivolous and incapable’.

Instead, Wollstonecraft felt that the educational system should allow girls the same advantages as boys, and not only treat women as wives and mothers but as contributing members of society and the economy.

To this day, A Vindication of the Rights of Women is one of the most influential works of feminism, helping pave the way to an equal world. To find out more about Mary Wollstonecraft please head over to 42 Dolben Street and visit her plaque.