- Mary Astell, title page to her 1694 treatise, published anonymously, advocating for equal educational opportunities for women and career options beyond mother and nun. A SERIOUS PROPOSAL To the Ladies, attributed to Mary Astell, refutes the 17th century theory of women's incapacity. It is the lack of education, Astell says, which brings about untrained judgment in women and leads them to wrong decisions. She proposed a college with a double aspect: a retreat from the world for those who desire it, and also an institution to fit women to do the greatest good in their own time and to improve the future. The teachings were to be not only religious but secular, including languages, philosophy, literature. In 1697 she wrote Part II, wherein she stirs her reader (whose equality she has already proven) to carry out her own development. Women, she says, should reason things out for themselves, determine their own acts and not rely on custom or be imposed upon by their fathers and husbands.
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