By the matriarch of feminism, Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women tackles womens-rights-as-human-rights decades before the women's suffrage movement began. In what is widely considered the very first feminist manifesto, Wollstonecraft argues on behalf of women's natural intellect and character—considered radical at the time, her writing has paved the way of progress for generations to come.

Continue your journey in the Women's Voices series with Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte and Hope Is the Thing with Feathers, the complete poems of Emily Dickinson.