Quote by Mary Astell: “If God has given us talents, it is for a good purpose.”

Astell suggests that inherent abilities and gifts are not accidental but are bestowed with a divine intention for constructive use. This implies a responsibility to cultivate and apply one's talents for the betterment of self and community, fulfilling a higher purpose in life.

Challenging religious justifications for limiting women's roles, Astell argued that divine gifts implied a responsibility for women to cultivate their intellect.

English philosopher and proto-feminist writer who argued for women's education and rational equality nearly a century before Wollstonecraft. Her 1694 work A Serious Proposal to the Ladies advocated for women's colleges and challenged the assumption that women were intellectually inferior.