Mary Wollstonecraft is not likely to ever be described as having a good childhood. She had a hard home life, watching her father be physically and verbally abusive to her mother. Being a woman, her mother could never express her frustration, and so she took it out on Mary and her siblings. She was the second of seven children, and while her eldest brother Ned received a fair-sized inheritance and was sent to law school to become a lawyer, Mary was left no money and what little education she received was random or spotty. Mary left home at age 19, angered by the sexism in her own family, and went to try and make a place for herself in the world. When she was 24, Mary helped her sister Eliza escape a violent marriage until a formal divorce could be arranged. Mary grew up watching men bully women into servitude, so it's no wonder she became such a strong advocate for women's rights!
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