Mary Astell

In Our Time: Philosophy

BBC

History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 November 2020

⏱️ 52 minutes

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Summary

The philosopher Mary Astell (1666 – 1731) has been described as “the 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: “If 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

Transcript

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0:48.1	Hello Mary Estelle 1666 to 1731 has been described as the first English feminist.
0:55.0	If all men are born free, she wrote, why are all women born slaves?
1:00.0	In the face of ridicule at the time, she argued that marriage should be a choice for women and not their vocation,
1:06.0	that a woman's mind was indistinguishable from a man's and above all that women had to be educated.
1:12.0	And she'd no time for men who argued for liberty
1:14.6	and yet were tyrants over their wives at home.
1:17.6	With me to discuss Maristel are
1:20.3	Hannah Dawson's senior lecturer in the history of Ideas at King's College London,
1:24.0	Mark Goldley, Professor Emeritus of Intellectual History at the University of Cambridge,
1:28.0	and Theresa Bejan, Associate Professor of Political Theory at Oriel College University of Oxford.
	...

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