The daughter of Newcastle coal merchants on both sides, Astell was educated in philosophy, logic, and mathematics by clergyman uncle Ralph Astell. An Orthodox Anglican and a Tory who never married, she moved to Chelsea at age 21 or 22 where she remained for the rest of her life.

      This ardent feminist, influential both in her own time and to later generations, includes as her friends, acquaintances, and supporters Lady Elisabeth Hastings, Elizabeth Elstob, Lady Mary Chudleigh, Elizabeth Thomas, Lady Catherine Jones, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, all reknowned feminists in their own rights.

      Astell was best known in her own time for A Serious Proposal to the Ladies by a Lover of Her Sex (1694) and Part 2 (1697) which marks her as the "first self-avowed, sustained feminist polemicist in English." Her later works include Letters Concerning the Love of God (1695), A Fair Way with Disenters and their Patrons (1704), An Impartial Enquiry into the Causes of Rebellion (1704), Moderation Truly Stated (1704), The Christian Religon as Professed by a Daughter of the Church (1705) and Bart'lemy Fair; or An Inquiry after Wit (1709) and the Preface to a collection of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's letters. In 1709 Astell opened a charity school. For more information on Astell, see Bridget Hill (ed.), The First English Feminist and Ruth Perry, The Celebrated Mary Astell.

      Today, Astell is best known for Some Reflections on Marriage (1700) which is in actuality 2 tracts in one. The first edition, which had no preface and no appendix, analyzed marriage from women's perspective and came to the conclusion that women are better off single. Astell looked at various reasons which men and women use to select a specific person to be their mate and came to two conclusions. Her first conclusion was that the reasons that men use to select a mate (money, position, looks, wit) do not result in a lasting relationship. The initial attraction soon wears off and whatever small bit of a relationship the couple had is ended. Her second conclusion was that there was no reliable method that women could use to select a mate who would treat her well. Because men have complete control over their wives, any promises that a man makes to a woman before they are married cannot be relied upon to actually take place after the marriage. Men will use all kinds of sweet words to woo a woman because they know that after the marriage they have complete power over their wives. Like tyrannical sovereigns, husbands with unlimited authority over their wives misuse their power to turn their wives into their slaves. This tract is entirely secular, using Reason, not Scripture, to argue her points, and many of her ideas parallel those current among men which stated men's rights to self-rule.

      In the third edition (1706) (see Ferguson, footnote p. 181) of this work, Astell added a preface which is essentially a religious tract justifying her right to write the secular tract. In later editions, due to the length of the Preface (30 pages of a 125 page work), Astell moved the Preface to the end as an Appendix. Probably her best known line comes from this work: it reads "If all men are born free, how is it that women are born slaves?" Astell's analysis of the Genesis story comes from the Appendix of Some Reflections on Marriage and uses one Biblical story to interpret another. After acknowledging that God did indeed tell Eve that her husband would rule over her, Astell notes that God also told Esau that her would serve his younger brother. Yet, Esau did eventually "break the yoke from off his neck." Why, Astell asks, should one be considered a command and the other a prediction?

      " 'Tis true, that GOD told Eve after the Fall, that her Husband should rule over her: And so it is, that he told Esau by the Mouth of Issac his Father, that he should serve his younger Brother, and should in Time, and when he was strong enough to do it, break the Yoke from off his Neck. Now, why one Text should be a Command any more than the other, and not both of them be Predictions only; or why the former should prove Adam's natural Right to Rule, and much less every Man's, and any more than the latter if Proof of Jacob's Right to rule, and of Esau's to Rebel, one is yet to learn? The Text in both Cases foretelling what would be; but either of them determining what ought to be." (page 108)

      "But, it will be said perhaps, that in I Tim. ii, 13, &c. St. Paul argues for the Woman's Subjection from the Reason of Things. To this I answer, that it must be confessed, that this (according to the vulgar Interpretation) is a very obscure Place, and I should be glad to see a natural, and not a Forced Interpretation given of it by those who take it Literally: Whereas if it be taken Allegorically, with respect to the Mystical Union between Christ and his Church, to which St. Paul frequently accommodates the matrimonial Relation, the Difficulties vanish. For the Earthly Adam's being formed before Eve, seems as little to prove her Natural Subjection to him, as the living Creatures, Fishes, Birds, and Beasts being formed before them both, proves that mankind must be subject to these Animals. Nor can the Apostle mean that Eve only sinned; or that she only was Deceived, for if Adam sinned willfully and knowingly, he became the greater Transgressor. But it is very true, that the Second Adam, the man Christ Jesus, was first formed, and then his spouse the Church. He was not in any respect Deceived, nor does she pretend to Infallibility. And from this second Adam, promised to Eve in the Day of our first Parents Transgression, and from Him only, do all their Race, Men as well as Women, derive their Hopes of Salvation. Nor is it promised to either Sex on any other Terms besides Perseverance in Faith, Charity, Holiness, and Sobriety. "

Reference:

      Biographical information is from Moria Ferguson, First Feminists British Women Writers 1578 - 1799, U. of Indiana Press, 1985

      My excerpts are taken from Some Reflections Upon Marriage, Source Books Press, NY, 1970 edition

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