Mary's Life...
Her early life events- as tragic as they may have been- led her to a successful life as a well known feminist.
Mary was born in Newcastle, England, on November 12, 1666. Her tutor was her Cambridge-educated uncle, Ralph Astell. With, him she began to have a passion for literature, and realized the injustice that women suffered for simply being of the opposite sex. She was very influenced by her religious beliefs, as her upbringing was very severe and Anglican- Ralph was also a clergyman. Unfortunately, her uncle passed away when she was thirteen, a year after her father had already departed. From then, her middle class family had gone down to extreme poverty.
Her mother passed away in 1684, which led her to move to London and pursue her career as a writer at the mere age of 18. In London, she met several nobles, but her most important contact was Lady Catherine Jones, who introduced her to London’s upper class. There, she received many followers of her gender and even some male admirers, but decided to dedicate her entire life in the pursuit of knowledge, equality and religious devotion, not relationships and marriage. Even in the case she had wished to marry, she could not, for she had no money to offer in the exchange of a husband.
Her first book, 'A Serious Proposal to the Ladies,' was a huge success for the women who followed Mary, as she acquired a great deal of female admirers for her bravery. Even though her works were criticized by some, she only stopped writing in 1701. In all her literary pieces, she kept her name anonymous, as being a female writer at those times was already risky, especially when she was discussing such a controversial topic.
Little Known Facts
- Even though Mary was against all the oppression and injustice women endured through at her times, she supported Absolutism due to her father's political ideology.
- Mary was satirized in the 'Tatler', a book by Swift and Addison, and named 'Madonella.' In the text, her beliefs were portrayed by nuns in a convent being disturbed by a loud, boasting man.
- Hobbes and Locke's reasoning was severely criticized by Mary, as they thought men were the heads of households because they were physically stronger. She believed that the mental abilities a person has cannot be measured by their gender.