It is argued here that Mary Wollstonecraft's pioneering contributions to the social sciences in general and to feminist studies in particular deserve fuller recognition. Her critiques of the leading conventional philosophers of her time, such as Edmund Burke, bring out the distinctive nature of her approach, in which the deprivation of women is linked with other social deprivations, and the roots of social progress are seen not only in legislatitive change but through societal processes involving the expansion and enrichment of basic education and more public engagement on issues of inequality and neglect.