especially after 1792, when mary wollstonecraft published her seminal work, "a vindication of the rights of woman." many authors in the united states began debating, discussing, negotiating the question of women's rights. and the issue was not that women had rights. that was now a given. but what rights did women have? did they extend to political rights? many authors talked about women having equal rights with men. what did that mean? and who should enforce and support those rights? in general at this time equality or equal rights for women tended to be interpreted not in a political sense but in terms of women's equal ability to have virtue, patriotism, and intellect. to have these same capacities along with men. and while to some of us today that doesn't seem as significant as the possession of voting rights i would argue that it was an incredibly significant change. women were no longer politically invisible. they were now acknowledged to have natural rights. it was just a question of what kinds of rights those should be and whether the state should have have a role in guaranteeing t