Mary Astell 1666 – 1731
Mary Astell was an English philosopher and one of the first advocates in English of the equal education of women. In A Serious Proposal to the Ladies she argued for the founding of an academic community in which women might cultivate rational and religious life apart from the demands of marriage and society. Some Reflections upon Marriage offered a sustained critique of the legal and economic subordination of wives, and her later political writings defended the Tory and Anglican causes. Her work, neglected for two centuries, has been recovered as a foundational text of feminist philosophy.
Key facts
- Nationality
- English
- Era
- Modern
- Movements
- Feminism, Early Modern
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Mary Astell:
“If all Men are born free, how is it that all Women are born slaves?”
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Attributed to Mary Astell:
“If absolute Sovereignty be not necessary in a State, how comes it to be so in a Family?”
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Attributed to Mary Astell:
“How can a Man respect his Wife when he has a Contemptible Opinion of her and her Sex?”
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Attributed to Mary Astell:
“True Religion is true Reason.”
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Attributed to Mary Astell:
“Nothing is, in truth, a Pleasure to us, but what is rationally so.”