Women in the Literary Market 1800-1900

 

Mary Astell
horizontal rule
Since the English Renaissance, women had made cautious but steady advances toward educational equality. When English universities finally began relaxing restrictions on female access to higher education in the 1870s, the move capped centuries of debate over women’s education.

Mary Astell (1668-1731) was one of the first English women to advocate the idea that women were just as rational as men, and just as deserving of education. First published in 1694, her Serious Proposal to the Ladies presents a plan for an all-female college where women could pursue a life of the mind. Well-reasoned and articulate, Astell’s ideas concerning female education were original and controversial. She was widely read in her own time and is hailed today as one of the first feminists.

horizontal rule
Mary Astell. A Serious Proposal to the Ladies... London: Printed by J. R. for R. Wilkin, 1697.
horizontal rule

view image

continue tour
introduction
early role models
entering the literary market
learned poets
getting into print
charlotte bronte and george eliot
sin and sensation
new women
education
journalism
activism
L.T. Meade
the three volume format
credits
home
Cornell University Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections Cornell University Library

Copyright © 2002 Division of Rare & Manuscript Collections
2B Carl A. Kroch Library, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853
Phone Number: (607) 255-3530. Fax Number: (607) 255-9524

For reference questions, send mail to: rareref@cornell.edu
If you have questions or comments about the site, send mail to: webmaster.