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Mary Astell

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the philosopher Mary Astell (1666 – 1731) who has been described as "the first English feminist".

The philosopher Mary Astell (1666 – 1731) has been described as β€œthe first English feminist”. Born in Newcastle in relatively poor circumstances in the aftermath of the upheaval of the English Civil War and the restoration of the monarchy, she moved to London as a young woman and became part of an extraordinary circle of intellectual and aristocratic women. In her pioneering publications, she argued that women’s education should be expanded, that men and women’s minds were the same and that no woman should be forced to marry against her will. Perhaps her most famous quotation is: β€œIf all Men are born Free, why are all Women born Slaves?” Today, she is one of just a handful of female philosophers to be featured in the multi-volume Cambridge History of Political Thought.

The image above is from Astell's "Reflections upon Marriage", 3rd edition, 1706, held by the British Library (Shelfmark 8415.bb.27)

With:

Hannah Dawson
Senior Lecturer in the History of Ideas at King’s College London

Mark Goldie
Professor Emeritus of Intellectual History at the University of Cambridge

Teresa Bejan
Associate Professor of Political Theory at Oriel College, University of Oxford

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Available now

52 minutes

Last on

Thu 5 Nov 2020 21:30

LINKS AND FURTHER READING


















READING LIST:

Sarah Apetrei, Women, Feminism and Religion in Early Enlightenment England (Cambridge University Press, 2010)

Mary Astell (ed. Patricia Springborg), Political Writings (Cambridge University Press, 1996)

Mary Astell (ed. Patricia Springborg), A Serious Proposal to the Ladies (Broadview Press, 1999)

Mary Astell, Reflections Upon Marriage: The third edition. To which is added a preface, in answer to some objections (first published 1706; Gale ECCO, 2010)

Jacqueline Broad, Women Philosophers of the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge University Press, 2003)

Jacqueline Broad and Karen Green, A History of Women’s Political Thought in Europe, 1400 to 1700 (Cambridge University Press, 2009)

Rebecca Buxton and Lisa Whiting (eds.), The Philosopher Queens: The Lives and Legacies of Philosophy's Unsung Women (Unbound, 2020)

William Kolbrener and Michal Michelson (eds.), Mary Astell: Reason, Gender, Faith (Routledge, 2007)

Ruth Perry, The Celebrated Mary Astell: An Early English Feminist (University of Chicago Press, 1986)

Patricia Springborg, Mary Astell: Theorist of Freedom from Domination (Cambridge University Press, 2005)

Broadcasts

  • Thu 5 Nov 2020 09:00
  • Thu 5 Nov 2020 21:30

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