Mary Astell and the Case for Women's Rational Education

Mary Astell (1666–1731), born in Newcastle upon Tyne to a merchant family of modest means, moved to London around 1688 and, largely self-educated through her uncle's library and her own reading of Descartes, Malebranche, and the Cambridge Platonists, published A Serious Proposal to the Ladies in 1694, followed by a second part in 1697. The Serious Proposal argues that women's apparent intellectual inferiority to men results not from any natural incapacity but from systematic denial of education, and proposes the establishment of a secular female academy, a residential community where women could pursue rigorous study of philosophy, theology, and the sciences away from the distractions and dependencies of both marriage and ordinary domestic life — a proposal that drew both serious interest, reportedly including a substantial donation pledge from Princess (later Queen) Anne, and public ridicule, notably from Bishop Gilbert Burnet, whose opposition is credited with discouraging the plan's realization.