SOURCE: "Mary Wollstonecraft, Feminism, and Humanism: A Spectrum of Reading," in Mary Wollstonecraft and 200 Years of Feminisms, edited by Eileen Janes Yeo, London and New York: Rivers Oram Press, 1997, pp. 222-42.

In the essay that follows, Bannerji notes the ambivalence of contemporary feminist theorists toward Wollstonecraft and attempts, nonetheless, to claim that A Vindication of the Rights of Woman provides a promising philosophical resource for current feminist discourse.

Some years have passed since feminism has gained currency and a degree of respectability in the West. No longer inhabiting social, political and intellectual margins, in various adapted forms and effects it has gained a niche for itself even in governments, businesses and public institutions. The generalisation of feminism among women is wide enough to have reached the point of divergent claims and contests regarding the meaning of the concept, its agents and practices. The current atmosphere among Western feminists...