Read the inspiring words of feminism's founder. Just a few days before she passed away, Mary Wollstonecraft wrote to her daughter.

Many people believe Mary Wollstonecraft to be the mother of feminism. Her seminal book, "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman," which questioned the idea that women only existed to appease men, still serves as the foundation for today's feminist movement.

Only a few days after giving birth to her daughter in 1797, Wollstonecraft passed away, but not before offering her one final piece of advice. Every daughter deserves to hear this wisdom.

I would then, with fond anxiety, lead you very early in life to form your grand principle of action to save you from the vain regret of having, through irresolution, let the spring tide of existence pass away, unimproved, unenjoyed. Death may snatch me from you before you can weigh my advice, or enter into my reasoning. — Gain experience while it is still valuable and develop the tenacity necessary to pursue your own happiness, which includes your utility, in a direct manner. Wisdom is frequently like the goddess' owl, which sits in a broken heart and mopes.

According to The Marginalian, Wollstonecraft had been working on a different book as a sequel to Vindication that would be more intimate in nature. Wollstonecraft's statements suggest that she was aware that the end might be near, which makes the message she delivered all the more poignant.

This paragraph might not seem all that radical in today's world. Gain knowledge and go towards your own pleasure. We've heard it before, so we get it. But what makes it so amazing is that Wollstonecraft promoted self-mastery in her daughter at a time when a woman's fate was entirely determined by males. Wollstonecraft wanted her daughter to share her innate understanding of the importance of empowering women.

She also wanted her daughter to grow up understanding that she is and always will be sufficient. She explains how keeping that in mind will guarantee a happy existence.

Always be who you are, and you'll never leave this life without experiencing its true joys, love, and respect.

Through the writing of "Frankenstein," which introduced the world to science fiction, Mary Shelley, Wollstonecraft's daughter, would carry on her mother's words and feminist ideals.

Scholars have pointed out how feminist in and of itself Shelley's well-known novel is. primarily because how Shelley questioned how patriarchal society's male-dominated scientific community had diminished the value of women and femininity. Given that the Frankenstein bride was destroyed,

Shelley defied tradition in favor of forging her own path, as her mother had urged. And not simply in her professional life. In reality, a very hot double biography was called for because both the mother and the daughter had strong counterculture relationships.

Marginalian adds that young Mary Shelley only really got to know her mother through her writing and that she learned to read by copying the lettering on her mother's headstone. It's a touching image that is yet melancholy. Her identity was undoubtedly influenced by the words that her late mother spoke to her.

It appeared that Wollstonecraft wanted her daughter to grow up with a fierce independence that she could never lose. If so, she was successful, and her comments continue to encourage women all around the world to take advantage of—or even fight for—the real benefits of being precisely who they are.