But, alas! what poor Woman is ever taught that she should have a higher Design than to get her a Husband?
Interpretation
This quote criticizes societal expectations placed on women, suggesting they are taught to prioritize marriage above personal ambitions.
Mary Astell highlights the limitations imposed on women by societal norms, indicating that from a young age, they are conditioned to believe their primary goal in life is to marry. This statement challenges the notion that women should aspire only to find a husband, advocating for a broader understanding of women's roles and potential beyond traditional expectations.
In practice
In a speech advocating for women's rights, this quote could be used to emphasize the need for broader aspirations among women.
Hitherto I have courted Truth with a kind of Romantick Passion, in spite of all Difficulties and Discouragements: for knowledge is thought so unnecessary an Accomplishment for a Woman, that few will give themselves the Trouble to assist us in the Attainment of it.
How can a Man respect his Wife when he has a contemptible Opinion of her and her Sex?
Although it has been said by men of more wit than wisdom, and perhaps more malice than either, that women are naturally incapable of acting prudently, or that they are necessarily determined to folly, I must by no means grant it.
If God had not intended that Women shou'd use their Reason, He wou'd not have given them any, 'for He does nothing in vain.
The curse of me and my nation is that we always think things can be bettered by immediate action of some sort, any sort rather than no sort.
Normality is a fine ideal for those who have no imagination.
I believe you make your day. You make your life. So much of it is all perception, and this is the form that I built for myself. I have to accept it and work within those compounds, and it's up to me.
History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men. What is history? History is women following behind with the bucket.
In bourgeois society capital is independent and has individuality, while the living person is dependent and has no individuality.
The cadence of suffering has begun. Every evening at dusk, my heart constricts until night has come.
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