Mary Astell

Few records of Mary Astell's life have survived. As biographer Ruth Perry explains: "As a woman she had little or no business in the world of commerce, politics, or law. She was born, she died; she owned a small house for some years; she kept a bank account; she helped to open a charity school in Chelsea: these facts the public listings can supply."Perry, 22. Although Perry uncovered letters and manuscript fragments, she notes that if Astell had not written to wealthy aristocrats who could afford to pass down entire estates, very little of her life would have survived.[https://projectvox.org/astell-1666-1731/ Project Vox team]. (2024). “Mary Astell.” Project Vox. Duke University Libraries.

Astell was born in Newcastle upon Tyne on 12 November 1666, to Peter and Mary (Errington) Astell.Smith, Mary Astell, 2. Her parents had two other children, William, who died in infancy, and Peter, her younger brother.Sutherland, Eloquence, xi. She was baptised in St John's Church in Newcastle.{{cite web|title=Mary Astell |url=http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/astell.html |publisher=Oregon State |access-date=1 May 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150221153142/http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/astell.html |archive-date=21 February 2015 }} Her family was upper-middle class and lived in Newcastle throughout her early childhood. Her father was a coal merchant, a clerk within the Hostmen of Newcastle upon Tyne, and a conservative royalist Anglican.{{Cite web |last=Team |first=Project Vox |title=Astell (1666-1731) |url=https://projectvox.org/astell-1666-1731/ |access-date=2023-05-02 |website=Project Vox |language=en}} Mary's maternal grandfather was also a coal merchant and a member of the Hostmen guild. Due to her family's success in the coal business, her family had grown to achieve relative affluence. At the time of Mary's birth, her family was not part of the gentry. Within a year of Mary's birth her family would be elevated in status after an ancestor's augmentation. Mary received no formal education, although she did receive an informal education from her uncle Ralph Astell; he was a Cambridge graduate{{Acad|name=Ralph Astell|id=ASTL650R}} and a former clergyman whose alcoholism had prompted his suspension from the Church of England.{{cite book|editor=Donawerth, Jane|title=Rhetorical Theory by Women before 1900: an anthology|year=2002|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|location=Lanham, MD|isbn=978-0-7425-1717-2|pages=100}} Although suspended from the Church, he was affiliated with the Cambridge-based philosophical school that based its teachings around philosophers such as Aristotle, Plato, and Pythagoras.{{cite encyclopedia|title=Astell, Mary|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Mary_Astell.aspx#1|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of World Biography|access-date=28 April 2011}} Her father died when she was 12 years old, leaving her without a dowry. With the remainder of the family finances invested in her brother's higher education, Mary and her mother moved to live with Mary's aunt.

After moving in with her aunt, little is known about Mary Astell's life until she was in her early twenties. It is possible that she continued to receive informal education from her uncle, but there is no concrete evidence. It is possible that Mary's lack of a dowry and her family's financial situation may have limited her opportunities for further education or advancement. It is not known whether she had any close friends or was involved in any romantic relationships. It is unclear whether she was involved in any political or social causes during this time, although her later writings suggest an interest in issues related to women's education and equality.

File:Reynold' Study for a portrait.jpg' study for the portrait of a young woman ({{circa}} 1760–65) in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, was used as the cover illustration of The Eloquence of Mary Astell (2005) by Christine Mason Sutherland ]]

Several years after the death of her aunt in 1684, Astell alone moved to London, possibly because of the political unrest that took place between 1686-1688 in Newcastle.{{Cite web |last=Team |first=Project Vox |title=Astell (1666-1731) |url=https://projectvox.org/astell-1666-1731/ |access-date=2025-02-07 |website=Project Vox |language=en}} In London, she became acquainted with a circle of literary and influential women, including Lady Mary Chudleigh, Elizabeth Thomas, Judith Drake, Elizabeth Elstob, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.Sowaal, Alice. [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/astell/ "Mary Astell"], Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2005), 16 December 2006. These women helped develop and publish her work, as did William Sancroft, previously Archbishop of Canterbury. Bound by his previous oath to James II, he refused to swear allegiance to William III after the 1688 Glorious Revolution and became a Nonjuror. He provided financial support for Astell and an introduction to her future publisher. Astell later dedicated a collection of poetry to him.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thecrownchronicles.co.uk/history/mary-astell-the-first-feminist/|title=Mary Astell: the first feminist? • The Crown Chronicles|last=Henderson-Bryan|first=Bethanie|date=2018-05-12|website=The Crown Chronicles|access-date=2019-04-21}}

During this time, it is believed that Astell may have spent some time at a convent in France, where she was exposed to ideas about education and independence for women.{{Cite book |last=Sutherland |first=Christine Mason |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/166335051 |title=The eloquence of Mary Astell |date=2005 |publisher=University of Calgary Press |isbn=978-1-55238-459-6 |location=Calgary, Alta. |oclc=166335051}} She was one of the first English women, following Bathsua Makin, to advocate the idea that women are as rational as men, and just as deserving of education. First published anonymously and signed "By a Lover of her Sex" in 1694, her A Serious Proposal to the Ladies for the Advancement of their True and Greatest Interest presents a plan for an all-female college where women could pursue a life of the mind.[http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/womenLit/education/Astell_L.htm "Mary Astell"]. Women in the Literary Marketplace 1800–1900. In 1697, she published part 2 to her A Serious Proposal "Wherein a Method is offered for the Improvement of their Minds".{{Cite web|url=http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195399301/obo-9780195399301-0205.xml|title=Mary Astell - Renaissance and Reformation - Oxford Bibliographies - obo|website=www.oxfordbibliographies.com|language=en|access-date=2019-04-21}}

In 1700, Astell published Some Reflections upon Marriage.Astell, Mary, 1668–1731, [http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/astell/marriage/marriage.html Some Reflections Upon Marriage, Occasioned by the Duke and Dutchess of Mazarine's Case; Which is Also Considered], London: Printed for John Nutt, near Stationers-Hall, 1700. She critiques the philosophical underpinnings of the institution of marriage in 1700s England, warning women of the dangers of a hasty or ill-considered choice. The Duchess of Mazarin is used as an example of "the dangers of an ill Education and unequal Marriage". Astell argues that education will help women to make better matrimonial choices and meet the challenges of the married state: "She has need of a strong Reason, of a truly Christian and well-temper'd Spirit, of all the Assistance the best Education can give her, and ought to have some good assurance of her own Firmness and Vertue, who ventures on such a Trial."

Astell warns that disparity in intelligence, character, and fortune may lead to misery, and recommends that marriage be based on lasting friendship rather than short-lived attraction. A woman should look for "a good Understanding, a Vertuous Mind, and in all other respects let there be as much equality as may be". Astell expanded on this theme in response to critics in the third edition of Some Reflections upon Marriage.

File:Reflections upon Marriage.jpg

She withdrew from public life in 1709 to become head of a charity school for girls in Chelsea, funded by two wealthy philanthropists, Lady Catherine Jones and Lady Elizabeth Hastings. Backed by the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge, Astell designed the school curriculum and it is thought to be the first school in England with an all-women board of governors.{{sfn|Scott|1983|p=100}} When she was 60 years old, in 1726, Astell was invited to live with Lady Catherine Jones, with whom she resided until her death in 1731.{{sfn|Donawerth|2002|p=100}}

Astell died in London a few months after a mastectomy to remove a cancerous right breast. In her last days, she refused to see any of her acquaintances and stayed in a room with her coffin, thinking only of God; she was buried in the churchyard of Chelsea Church in London.

Astell is remembered for her ability to debate with both men and women, and for her groundbreaking methods of negotiating the position of women in society by engaging in philosophical debate (René Descartes was a particular influence) rather than basing her arguments in historical evidence as had been attempted. Descartes' theory of dualism, a separate mind and body, allowed Astell to promote the idea that women, as well as men, had the ability to reason, and subsequently, they should not be treated so poorly; "If all Men are born Free, why are all Women born Slaves?"Astell, Reflections, 107.

Mary Astell's works were published anonymously. Her two best-known books, A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, for the Advancement of Their True and Greatest Interest (1694) and A Serious Proposal, Part II (1697), outline her plan to establish a new type of institution for women to assist in providing women with both religious and secular education. She suggests extending women's career options beyond mother and nun. She felt that uneducated women were concerned with beauty and vanity, and the lack of education was the root of their inferiority to men, not that they were naturally inferior. Astell wanted all women to have the same opportunity as men to spend eternity in heaven with God, and she believed that for this they needed to be educated and to understand their experiences. The "nunnery" style education she proposed would enable women to live in a protected environment, without the influences of the external patriarchal society.

Her proposal was never adopted because critics{{who?|date=May 2025}} said it seemed "too Catholic" for the English.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}} Later her ideas about women were satirised in The Tatler by the writer Jonathan Swift.{{cite encyclopedia|title=Mary Astell|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Mary_Astell.aspx#3|encyclopedia=The Columbia Encyclopedia|access-date=28 April 2011}} While the writer Daniel Defoe admired the first part of Astell's proposal, he believed that her recommendations were "impracticable". Patricia Springborg notes that Defoe's own recommendation for an academy for women (as detailed in his An Essay Upon Projects) did not significantly differ from Astell's original proposal.{{cite book|last=Astell|first=Mary|title=A Serious Proposal to the Ladies|editor=Patricia Springborg|year=2002|publisher=Broadview Press|location=Peterborough|isbn=978-1-55111-306-7 |pages=15}} Despite this, she was still an intellectual force among the educated classes of London.

A few years later, Astell published the second part of A Serious Proposal, detailing her own vision of women's education for courtly ladies. She broke away from the contemporary rhetorical style of the period where orators spoke before an audience for learning, and instead she offered a conversational style of teaching "neighbours" the proper way of behaviour. She referred only to the Port-Royal Logic as a source of contemporary influence, although she still relied upon classical rhetorical theories when presenting her original concepts. In her presentation, she offered that rhetoric, as an art, does not require a male education to become a master, and she listed the means by which a woman could acquire the necessary skills from natural logic. This established Astell as a capable female rhetorician.{{sfn|Donawerth|2002|p=101}}

After reading Norris's Practical Discourses, upon several Divine subjects (1691), in the early 1690s Astell entered into correspondence with John Norris of Bemerton. The letters illuminate Astell's thoughts on God and theology. Norris thought the letters worthy of publication and with Astell's consent, he had them published as Letters Concerning the Love of God (1695). Her name did not appear in the book, but her identity was soon discovered and her rhetorical style was much lauded by contemporaries.

One of Astell's notable contributions to eighteenth-century ideas of a friendship between women rests on the political exigencies of forming alliances.{{Cite book|title=Friendship's Shadows: Women's Friendship and the Politics of Betrayal in England, 1640-1705|last=Anderson|first=Penelope|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|year=2012|pages=222–259|chapter=Covert Politics and Separatist Women’s Friendship: Margaret Cavendish and Mary Astell}} Jacqueline Broad views Astell's bond of friendship as more Aristotelian, where alliances are formed for the sake of virtuous reciprocity.{{Cite journal|last=Broad|first=Jacqueline|date=Fall 2018|title=Mary Astell on Virtuous Friendship|doi=10.1353/pgn.0.0169|journal=Parergon|volume=26|issue=2|pages=65–86|s2cid=144922270|url=https://philarchive.org/rec/BROMAO-2 }} However, Nancy Kendrick does not accept Broad's viewpoint. She feels Astell's "theory of friendship is determinedly anti-Aristotelian". Although Astell embraced the Aristotelian friendship of moral virtue, Kendrick claims that Astell treated "virtuous friends as those who love one another for who they essentially are" and not just for the sake of reciprocity. Contrary to Aristotle, Astell contends that authentic virtuous friendship arose from the Divine Nature of God, thus becoming spiritual friendship. Furthermore, Astell, unlike Aristotle, saw this love in friendship extending toward one's enemies because Divine Love embraces all of mankind.{{Cite journal|last=Kendrick|first=Nancy|date=Fall 2018|title=Mary Astell's Theory of Spiritual Friendship|journal=British Journal for the History of Philosophy|volume=26|pages=46–65|doi=10.1080/09608788.2017.1347869|s2cid=172046217}}

Astell believed in the importance of educating women and argued for their intellectual development, primarily in A Serious Proposal to the Ladies. She challenged prevailing notions that women were intellectually inferior to men using a form of Cartesian dualism, which holds that the mind and body are two different entities. She argued that even though men and women differ in body, the two innately share the same kind of mind bestowed by God, and thus are equally capable of intelligent thought. Furthermore, she thought that the limited educational opportunities for women at the time curtailed their ability to develop their rational faculties, causing them to be perceived as more ignorant. This ignorance translated into a perception of sin, which Astell thought could be countered if women were educated to be more virtuous. Therefore, she advocated for a comprehensive education that would enable women to participate in society, engage in intellectual discourse, and contribute to the public sphere. Astell thought that a proper education was crucial for women to attain social and intellectual independence, allowing them to break free from the constraints imposed by patriarchal society.

Astell believed that women should be educated in a spiritual, women-only environment, away from society. She felt that women should receive an education free of male influence because of how corrupt the world under male dominance was.{{Cite web |last=Detlefsen |first=Karen |author-link=Karen Detlefsen |date=2016 |title=Custom, freedom and equality: Mary Astell on marriage and women's education |url=https://philpapers.org/archive/DETCFA.pdf |access-date=2018-12-04 |website=philpapers.org}} To accomplish these aims, she suggested the establishment of a monastery-like institution where young women could receive an education and older women could retire. Astell held that this education should be composed of subjects traditionally dominated by men, such as philosophy and theology, along with a strong religious component.

Astell's Some Reflections upon Marriage emphasises the importance of women's education for improving the state of marriage. She explains that if women were better educated, they would choose their partners more wisely and exhibit better behavior. She cites the example of Hortense Mancini, whose separation from her abusive husband led to a questioning of the role of choice by women in marriage.{{Cite web |title=Mary Astell and Hortence Mancini: A Philosopher's Take on Domestic Hell |url=http://www.sandrineberges.com/2/post/2021/07/mary-astell-and-hortence-mancini-a-philosophers-take-on-domestic-hell.html |access-date=2023-05-02 |website=Sandrine Berges |language=en}} Astell asserts that marriage’s current state is far from its original sanctity as a holy institution established by God, because of widespread corruption and immoral behaviour. She encourages women to fortify their virtue and reason through education and to distance themselves from activities such as gambling and flirting. Although Astell's view of the roles women and men should adopt in marriage is largely conservative, encouraging women to submit to the will of their husbands, she affirms women's intellectual equality to men and warns women to choose husbands they can respect.{{Cite web |last=Team |first=Project Vox |title=Astell (1666-1731) |url=https://projectvox.org/astell-1666-1731/ |access-date=2025-02-07 |website=Project Vox |language=en}}

Scholars have suggested that Astell's Reflections contain a veiled political subtext challenging the Whig theorists of her time to extend the same authority granted to husbands in the domestic sphere to sovereigns in the state.{{Cite journal |last=Leduc |first=Guyonne |date=2010-06-01 |title=The Representation of Women's Status in Domestic and Political Patriarchy in Mary Astell and Mary Wollstonecraft |url=https://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/6108 |journal=Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique. French Journal of British Studies |language=en |volume=XV |issue=4 |doi=10.4000/rfcb.6108 |issn=0248-9015|doi-access=free |hdl=20.500.12210/63383 |hdl-access=free }} By questioning the acceptance of submission and obedience to authority in the home, but not in the state, Astell presents an ironic challenge to Whig opponents, implying that Whig theorists should practise passive obedience to their political leaders.

Although Astell generally endorses marriage as "the Institution of Heaven" and a "great Blessing" for wives, she recognises that some women might not be inclined toward marriage.{{Cite web |last=Team |first=Project Vox |title=Astell (1666-1731) |url=https://projectvox.org/astell-1666-1731/ |access-date=2025-02-07 |website=Project Vox |language=en}} Astell never married, although she may have been engaged to a clergyman at one point in her life, as her eighteenth-century biographer George Ballard suggested.

Some have questioned how Astell could be both a feminist and a High-Church Tory given her disapproval of John Locke's political views and her opposition to Whig theories of liberty, resistance, and tolerance. At first glance, her support for a political party that fights freedom of conscience and other perceived dangers to the Anglican church seems in opposition with her advocacy for women's freedom of judgment. Scholars have seen that Astell's feminism is not founded on liberal political objectives but rather on intellectual premises, explaining why, at the time, she did not demand complete political equality for women.

Having been exposed in her youth to civil unrest and riots in the streets of Newcastle is probably what helped develop her interest in politics. She had idealised King Charles I and viewed his successors, William and Mary, as "illegitimate" rulers to the throne of England.{{Cite book|title=The Celebrated Mary Astell|last=Perry|first=Ruth|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=1986|isbn=978-0-226-66093-6|location=Chicago|pages=[https://archive.org/details/celebratedmaryas00perr/page/41 41–42]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/celebratedmaryas00perr/page/41|authorlink=Ruth Perry (literary scholar)}} Her unwavering support of Tory politics and the primacy of Anglicanism has caused her writings to be reevaluated in that context.

According to Astell's Anglican political theology, all subjects are required to adhere to the notion of passive obedience, which mandates that they must willingly surrender to political authority.{{Cite book |last=Springborg |first=Patricia |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/68925923 |title=Mary Astell : theorist of freedom from domination |date=2005 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-511-13714-1 |location=Cambridge |oclc=68925923}}  When they are unable to do so openly, they must submit to the punishment for it. Even if the crown had dictatorial authority, Astell argued that political subjects were never entitled to oppose the monarch.{{Cite journal |last=Springborg |first=Patricia |date=1995 |title=Mary Astell (1666-1731), Critic of Locke |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2082978 |journal=The American Political Science Review |volume=89 |issue=3 |pages=621–633 |doi=10.2307/2082978 |jstor=2082978 |s2cid=145088771 |issn=0003-0554|url-access=subscription }}

Locke criticised Astell's views on natural law and the right of resistance in his First Treatise, published in 1690.{{Cite journal |last=Sowaal |first=Alice |date=2017-12-21 |title=Mary Astell on Liberty |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198810261.003.0012 |journal=Oxford Scholarship Online |doi=10.1093/oso/9780198810261.003.0012|url-access=subscription }} Astell maintains that while Locke considers self-preservation to be a fundamental right, it only involves preserving the immortal soul. Therefore, humans are only entitled to act in ways that will ensure the safety of their souls from judgment, in accordance with natural law.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

{{refbegin|30em}}

• A Serious Proposal to the Ladies for the Advancement of their True and Greatest Interest. By a Lover of Her Sex. 1694, 1695, 1696 1697 (two printings), 1701, 1703
• [http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/astell/marriage/marriage.html Some Reflections Upon Marriage, Occasioned by the Duke and Dutchess of Mazarine's Case; Which is Also Considered.] London: Printed for John Nutt, near Stationers-Hall, 1700 1700, Also: 1703, 1706, 1730 (two editions)
• [https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_a-fair-way-with-the-diss_astell-mary_1704 A Fair Way with Dissenters and their Patrons. Not writ by Mr. L – - – - – y, or any other Furious Jacobite, whether Clergyman or Layman; but by a very Moderate Person and Dutiful Subject to the Queen]. 1704
• [https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_an-impartial-enquiry-int_astell-mary_1704 An Impartial Enquiry into the Causes of Rebellion and Civil War in this Kingdom: In an examination of Dr. Kennett’s sermon, 31 Jan. 1703/4. And Vindication of the Royal Martyr]. 1704
• The Character of the Wisest Men. Re-printed and published by the Author’s Friends. 1704
• Moderation Truly Stated: or, a review of a late pamphlet, entitul’d Moderation a virtue, or the occasional conformist justify’d from the imputation of hypocricy. Wherein this justification is further consider’d, …. 1704
• [https://archive.org/details/lettersconcerni00norrgoog/page/n7/mode/2up Letters concerning the love of God, between the author of the proposal to the ladies and Mr. John Norris: Wherein his late Discourse, shewing, That it ought to be intire and exclusive of all other Loves, is further Cleared and Justified. Published by J. Noris, M. A. Rector of Bemerton near Sarum]. The second edition, corrected by the authors, with some few things added. 1705, 1730
• [https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_reflections-upon-marriag_astell-mary_1706 Reflections upon marriage. The third edition. To which is added a preface, in answer to some objections]. 1706
• [https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_the-christian-religion-_astell-mary_1730 The Christian religion, as profess’d by a daughter of the Church of England]. 1705, 1717, 1730
• [https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_bartlemy-fair-or-an-e_astell-mary_1709 Bart’lemy Fair: or an enquiry after with: in which due respect is had to a letter concerning enthusiasm, to my Lord ***. By Mr. Wotton]. 1709
• [https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_an-enquiry-after-wit-wh_astell-mary_1722/page/n5/mode/2up An enquiry after wit: wherein the trifling arguing and impious raillery of the late Earl of Shaftesbury, in his Letter concerning enthusiasm, and other profane writers, are fully answer’d and justly exposed]. 1722
• (Attributed) [https://archive.org/details/essayindefenceof00aste/page/n7/mode/2up An essay in defence of the female sex. : In which are inserted the characters of a pedant, a squire, a beau, a vertuoso, a poetaster, a city-critick, &c. in a letter to a lady]. 1696 (two editions), 1697
• (Attributed) [https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_six-familiar-essays-upon_astell-mary_1696 Six familiar essays upon marriage, death, crosses in love, sickness and friendship]. 1696

{{refend}}

Astell's ideas about women in education laid the foundation for later feminist movements, as they challenged social norms and paved the way for improved educational opportunities for women. Her work continues to inspire contemporary debates on gender equality and the importance of education in women's empowerment. Mary Astell's groundbreaking reflections on women's education continue to be a testament to her enduring legacy as a feminist philosopher and advocate for women's rights.{{Cite journal |last=Kinnaird |first=Joan K. |date=1979 |title=Mary Astell and the Conservative Contribution to English Feminism |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/385747 |journal=Journal of British Studies |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=53–75 |doi=10.1086/385747 |s2cid=161848352 |issn=0021-9371|url-access=subscription }}

Astell had a significant personal library that was an unusual example of a late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century book collection owned by a woman who was a published author. Her books bear the inscription of her name on the title page and her many annotations in her books.{{Cite web |title=Mary Astell 1666-1731 - Book Owners Online |url=https://www.bookowners.online/Mary_Astell_1666-1731 |access-date=2022-11-04 |website=www.bookowners.online}} In 2021 a collection of 47 of Astell's books and pamphlets, many of which have her annotations, were identified in the Old Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge by Catherine Sutherland, the deputy librarian. These marginalia reveal, for the first time, the degree to which she was involved with the natural philosophy literature and discourse of her time. Other holdings are at the British Library and the Northamptonshire Record Office.{{cite news |last1=Swerling |first1=Gabriella |title=Handwritten notes reveal mind of 'the first English feminist' |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/08/handwritten-notes-reveal-mind-first-english-feminist/ |access-date=11 March 2021 |work=Daily Telegraph |date=8 March 2021}}{{sfn|Almeroth-Williams|2021}}

The Mary Astell Academy (formerly Linhope PRU) in Linhope Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, is named after her.{{cite web |title=About Us |url=http://maryastellacademy.co.uk/about-us-2/ |website=Mary Astell Academy}} In Germany, there is a street dedicated to her, Mary-Astell-Straße, in Bremen.

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{refbegin|30em}}

• {{cite web |last1=Almeroth-Williams |first1=Tom |title=Ahead of her time: Magdalene College discovers a treasure trove of women's intellectual history |url=https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/mary-astell-collection-magdalene-college |publisher=University of Cambridge |access-date=11 March 2021 |date=8 March 2021}}
• Astell, Mary. The Christian Religion, as Professed by a Daughter of the Church of England. Ed. Jacqueline Broad. Toronto: CRRS and Iter, 2013. {{ISBN|978-0-7727-2142-6}}.
• Astell, Mary. A Serious Proposal to the Ladies. Ed. Patricia Springborg. Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2002. {{ISBN|1-55111-306-6}}.
• Broad, Jacqueline. The Philosophy of Mary Astell: An Early Modern Theory of Virtue. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. {{ISBN|9780198716815}}.
• {{cite book |last1=Donawerth |first1=Jane |title=Rhetorical Theory by Women Before 1900: An Anthology |date=2002 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0742517165 }}
• Hill, Bridget. The First English Feminist: "Reflections Upon Marriage" and Other Writings by Mary Astell. Aldershot: Gower Publishing, 1986.
• Hill, Bridget. "A Refuge from Men: The Idea of a Protestant Nunnery". Past and Present 117 (1987): 107–30.
• James, Regina. "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, Or, Mary Astell and Mary Wollstonecraft Compared". Studies in Eighteenth Century Culture 5 (1976): 121–39.
• Perry, Ruth. The Celebrated Mary Astell: An Early English Feminist. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986. {{ISBN|0-226-66093-1}}.
• {{cite journal |last1=Scott |first1=Beatrice |title=Lady Elizabeth Hastings |journal=The Yorkshire Archaeological Journal |date=1983 |volume=55 }}
• Smith, Florence M. Mary Astell. New York: Columbia University Press, 1916.
• Springborg, Patricia. Mary Astell (1666–1731), Political Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
• Springborg, Patricia. "Mary Astell and John Locke," in Steven Zwicker (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to English Literature, 1650 to 1750. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
• Springborg, Patricia, Mary Astell: Theorist of Freedom from Domination (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005).
• Stone Stanton, Kamille. "'Affliction, the Sincerest Friend': Mary Astell’s Philosophy of Women’s Superiority through Martyrdom" Prose Studies: History, Theory, Criticism. {{ISSN|0144-0357}} Special Issue: The Long Restoration. Vol. 29.1. Spring, 2007, pp. 104–114.
• "‘Capable of Being Kings’: The Influence of the Cult of King Charles I on the Early Modern Women's Literary Canon" New Perspectives on the Eighteenth Century. {{ISSN|1544-9009}} Vol 5.1. Spring 2008, pp. 20–29.
• Sutherland, Christine. The Eloquence of Mary Astell. University of Calgary Press, 2005.
• Mary Astell: Reason, Gender, Faith. Edited by William Kolbrener and Michal Michelson. Aldershot, 2007, 230 pp.

{{refend}}

{{wikiquote}}

{{Library resources box|by=yes|onlinebooks=yes|lcheading=Astell, Mary, 1668–1731}}

• Astell, Mary. A Serious Proposal To the Ladies, For the Advancement of their true and greatest Interest, Printed for R. Wilkin at the King's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard, 1694. [https://anthologydev.lib.virginia.edu/work/Astell/astell-serious-proposal?view=pageImages Literature in Context: An Open Anthology.]
• {{Gutenberg author|id=48143}}
• [http://projectvox.org/astell-1666-1731/ Mary Astell (1666-1731)], Project Vox
• {{cite DNB |last=Overton |first=John Henry |authorlink=John Henry Overton |wstitle=Astell, Mary |volume=2 |short=x}}
• {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Astell, Mary |short=x}}
• [http://www.iep.utm.edu/astell/ Mary Astell], Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• {{cite SEP |url-id=astell |title=Mary Astell |last=Sowaal |first=Alice|date=2005-07-01}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20150221153142/http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/astell.html Mary Astell(1666–1731)] at [https://web.archive.org/web/20061205043632/http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/ Great Voyages: History of Western Philosophy]
• [http://www.luminarium.org/eightlit/astell/astellbib.php Excerpts from Astell's works]
• [http://www.projectcontinua.org/mary-astell/ Project Continua: Biography of Mary Astell]
• {{Cite journal|last=Broad|first=Jacqueline|date=Fall 2018|title=Mary Astell on Virtuous Friendship |doi=10.1353/pgn.0.0169|journal=Parergon|volume=26|issue=2|pages=65–86|s2cid=144922270|url=https://philarchive.org/rec/BROMAO-2 }}
• [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000nzpf Mary Astell] episode of In Our Time from 5 November 2020.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Astell, Mary}}

Category:1666 births

Category:1731 deaths

Category:17th-century English educators

Category:17th-century English women educators

Category:18th-century English women educators

Category:17th-century English women writers

Category:17th-century English writers

Category:17th-century English philosophers

Category:18th-century English educators

Category:18th-century English women writers

Category:18th-century English writers

Category:18th-century English non-fiction writers

Category:English women's rights activists

Category:English educational theorists

Category:English feminist writers

Category:English rhetoricians

Category:18th-century English philosophers

Category:English women activists

Category:English women non-fiction writers

Category:Feminism and history

Category:Feminist studies scholars

Category:People from Newcastle upon Tyne

Category:17th-century pseudonymous writers

Category:18th-century pseudonymous writers

Category:Pseudonymous women writers