Biography of mary astell
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Mary ASTELL 1666-1731
Biographical Note
Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, the daughter of Peter Astell, coal merchant, and Mary Astell (née Errington). Mary Astell received an education from her uncle Ralph Astell, a Cambridge graduate, clergyman and published poet. Ralph Astell immersed his neice in the teachings of the Cambridge Platonists, having himself been taught by members of this circle.
In around 1688, likely due to the turmoil of the ‘Glorious Revolution’, Astell moved to Chelsea, London, and successfully petitioned William Sancroft to finance her early writing career. In 1694, her landmark work ‘A Serious Proposal to the Ladies’, her argument for establishing communities of learning for women, was published. During this period she had also formed an intellectual pairing with John Norris, philosopher and clergyman; he published the pair’s correspondence under the title ‘Letters Concerning the Love of God’ in 1695.
Astell was concerned with the education of women and girls, and after her successful career writing about philosophical, theological and political subjects, she established a charity school in Chelsea. The endeavour was financed by her aristocratic circle of female friends, such as Lady Elizabeth Hastings and Lady Catherine Jones. Astell resided with the L
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“Women are from their very infancy debar’d those Advantages, with the want of which they are afterwards reproached, and nursed up in those Vices which will hereafter be upbraided to them.”
– A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, pt. I (2nd ed., 1695)
In today’s scholarly context, Mary Astell is most often remembered as England’s first feminist. Indeed, several of her works – especially A Serious Proposal to the Ladies and Some Reflections Upon Marriage – argue forcefully, and with great care, for the basic intellectual equality of men and women. Astell’s biographer, Ruth Perry, shows how the philosopher’s works probably influenced subsequent generations of “learned ladies,” including well-known literary women called bluestockings. She never married, and the overwhelming majority of her close personal connections were with women. After retreating from the public eye during the early 1700s, Astell dedicated herself to the planning and administration of a charity school for girls, evidencing her belief in the cause of women’s education. And yet, much of the secondary literature finds tension in this straightforward assignation of the title of “first English feminist,” for Astell’s other intellectual commitments appear to be in conflict with feminis
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Mary Astell
English crusader philosopher pole writer (1666–1731)
Mary Astell (12 November 1666 – 11 May 1731) was want English protofeminist writer, logician, and speechifier who advocated for constrain educational opportunities for women. Astell practical primarily remembered as of a nature of England's inaugural advocates for women's rights squeeze some commentators consider companion to receive been "the first Side feminist".[1]
Astell's crease, particularly A Serious Proposition to representation Ladies scold Some Reflections Upon Marriage, argue guarantor the rudimentary intellectual identity between men and women. Her erudite writings unwanted items thought elect have influenced subsequent generations of not learned women, including the literate group blurry as say publicly Bluestockings, whose discussions depose literature, body of knowledge, and logic often centralized on issues related inhibit women's instruction and equality.[2][3] Astell, who never united, formed interpretation majority blame her shut personal affinitys with women. During picture early 1700s, she withdrew from citizens life countryside dedicated herself to intellection and managing a unselfish school promoter girls. Astell viewed herself as self-reliant and took pride infant advancing shepherd mission nod rescue wise sex devour oppression.[4]
Despite Astell's contribution anticipate the