English subtitles for clip: File:Ikusgela-Mary Wollstonecraft.webm

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In 1789, the French
Revolution disrupted history,

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removing power from
the church and the nobility.

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In return, the bourgeoisie
took its place and established

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important changes
in social organization.

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But what did women face in

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those new times of
supposed freedom?

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Spoiler: they lived
isolated and oppressed.

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However, some
women gave up their

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imposed roles and challenged
the morals of the time.

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One of them is the British writer
and thinker Mary Wollstonecraft.

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She wrote texts that
today we consider feminist,

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that were absolutely
disruptive in her time.

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She was born on April
27, 1759 in London,

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within a bourgeois
upper-middle class family.

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She had to start working at a very
young age as a seamstress and teacher.

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Shee also created a school for
women, because education was

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an important variable that
conditioned the fate of women.

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But Wollstonecraft had
intellectual concerns and

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clearly wanted to build
her profession based on it.

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She was also a professional
writer, novelist and essayist.

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Attracted by the French
Revolution, she moved to

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Paris in 1792 and immersed
herself in the intellectual environment

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until she had to
return to her hometown

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due to tensions between
France and Great Britain.

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Wollstonecraft saw
the French Revolution

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with good eyes, but she
was also critical with it,

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with the atmosphere of fear
and censorship that the revolution brought.

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Wollstonecraft
developed some ideas that

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have been the pillars
of feminist thought.

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Her most significant work was.

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"A Vindication of the Rights
of Woman", publicada en 1792.

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"Emakumearen eskubideen
aldeko defentsa" in Basque.

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The title clearly indicates
the essence of the book.

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Here you have a summary of Wollstonecraft's
reflections in five points.

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1-Gender differentiation
is not based on nature.

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The society of the time recognized
man's reason and freedom.

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The woman, on the other hand, was
considered an emotional being, ideal

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for pleasure, unable to
make decisions for herself.

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Wollstonecraft argued
that this inequality

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is socially
constructed: education,

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laws and customs make men

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and women develop
different traits.

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In other words, women
are just as capable of

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develop any skill like men.

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2-Against marriage.

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Wollstonecraft confronted
the institution of marriage

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as one of the causes of the
situation of female dependency.

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In Europe at the time,
women were economically

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and legally dependent
on their husbands.

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The sons and daughters
belonged to the husband, who had

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right to do almost
anything with them.

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She eventually married the
anarchist thinker William Godwin.

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Of course, only to give legal
protection to her second daughter.

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3-She presented reason
and emotions completely

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separated, as many
Enlightenment thinkers did.

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According to the writer,
reason must control

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human activity above emotions.

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She valued emotions
as secondary.

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However, in her last
book she broke with

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this path, changing
her emotional attitude

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and representing it
in a more complex and

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and fruitful way the relationship
between reason and emotion.

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4-Against the separation
of the private and the public.

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In the Illustrated thought
the distinction between

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the private and the
public was very strong.

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What was done at home or within
the family was considered personal,

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and it did not have to conform
to the norms of the public sphere.

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Wollstonecraft, in this sense,
was not a standard Illustrated.

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She claimed the need
to change public relations

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and private towards the
equality of women and men.

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She said that inappropriate
relationships, or toxic,

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as we would say now,
gave birth to monsters.

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5-Critical character,
until the end.

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Wollstonecraft also opposed the
thinkers she felt were closest to her.

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The clear example is that
of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

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She admired the great thinker
of the ideas of the Enlightenment.

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And yet she harshly criticized
her: Rousseau excluded

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to women in scientific
and academic education.

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According to Rousseau,
women were actually dependent.

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But the revolutionary
character of the British thinker

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was not developed only
through her written texts.

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She also reflected
that thoughts in her life.

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Here are some examples:
she fell in love with the painter

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Henry Fuseli and proposed to him
and his wife to have a threesome.

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But no, they didn't accept it.

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Her later relationship was with the
American adventurer Gilbert Imlay.

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It was not a relationship subject
to the standards of the time:

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she had a daughter
with him out of wedlock.

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Her disruptive personal
life provoked contempt

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towards her work in
the society of the time.

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Her husband -William Godwin's-
memoirs of Wollstonecraft influenced this.

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After several years in
the shadow of history,

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feminists recovered her legacy
and her ideas in the mid-20th century

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and they made her a reference.

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Wollstonecraft had a
significant death: she died at 38,

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a few days after giving birth to
her daughter of the same name.

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Her daughter survived.

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Listen carefully to her
name and the surname

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she took when she
married: Mary Shelley.

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Sounds familiar to you, right?

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Well yes.

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The famous writer of Frankenstein
was the daughter of Wollstonecraft.

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Like mother like daughter.