Details
WOLLSTONECRAFT, MARY. A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN, LONDON, FOR J. JOHNSON, 1792, 8°, FIRST EDITION, vol. I [all published] (title and dedication lightly spotted, M1 lightly soiled at outer margin), contemporary calf (spine scuffed).
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-97) is the first person to have applied the term "legal prostitution" to marriage. Prostitution in its accepted sense she regarded as an inevitability in a society where women were unequal and financially and morally dependent on men. The well-intentioned reformers who wished to build "Asylums and Magdalens" for the reform of prostitutes drew from her the famous retort: "It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world."
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-97) is the first person to have applied the term "legal prostitution" to marriage. Prostitution in its accepted sense she regarded as an inevitability in a society where women were unequal and financially and morally dependent on men. The well-intentioned reformers who wished to build "Asylums and Magdalens" for the reform of prostitutes drew from her the famous retort: "It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world."