Mary Wollstonecraft

Wollstonecraft argued in 1792 that women appear frivolous because they are educated to be, and that a nation cannot be virtuous while half of it is kept ignorant. She had already run a school, worked as a governess and reviewed books for a living, which was itself rare.

She died at thirty-eight of infection days after giving birth to a daughter who became Mary Shelley. Her husband published a candid memoir of her love affairs that wrecked her reputation for a century. She and her daughter now lie together in Bournemouth.