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Mary Astell

A figure from the books

#MaryAstell

Mary Astell · 1666–1731

In the books · 1 chapter

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“The most radical question ever asked about marriage in English came from a poor, pious, fiercely conservative spinster who defended kings and bishops with one hand and demolished male supremacy with the other.”
— The Great Philosophers, Ch. 141

The big idea, in the book's words:

“Minds have no sex. Women's "inferiority" is manufactured by custom and bad education — and any man who preaches liberty in the state while ruling like an absolute monarch at home has contradicted himself.”
— The Great Philosophers, Ch. 141

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