A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects - Paperbackby Mary Wollstonecraft (Author) Mary Wollstonecraft (1759 1797) published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792. It was written in reaction to Rousseau's Emile (1762), which argued that the purpose of a girl's education was to make her useful to a man. Wollstonecraft offered a defence of woman's ability to reason, given appropriate education. She argued that the limited education given to women made them docile and empty headed playthings whose