JULIET MITCHELL
383
too"; feminism in the seventeenth century, as today, would add:
"anything a woman can do a man can do too" -though the seven–
teenth-century terms for this sexual" leveling " are slightly different.
The mental agility of women is valuable. "I know" (writes our
anonymous author) "our Opposers usually mis-call our Quickness of
Thought, Fancy and Flash , and christen their own Heaviness by the
specious Names of Judgement and Solidity : but it is easy to retort
upon' em the reproachful ones of Dulness and Stupidity with more
Justice, " and she goes on to claim that potentially the women's world
of care-for-others could be as much a repository of the highest values of
civilization as the men 's world of pursuing material gain. There is
nothing in itself wrong with domesticity. It is only women's enforced
exclusive confinement thereto and men's self-imposed exclusion
therefrom that creates the evil; but given this exclusiveness then
indeed it is evil. As the Duchess of Newcastle wrote in 1662:
.. . men are so unconscionable and cruel against us, as they en–
deavour
to
Barr us all Sorts or kinds of Li berry , as not to suffer us
Freely to associate amongst our own sex , but , would fain Bury us in
their houses or Beds, as in a Grave ; the truth is, we live like Bats or
owls, Labour like Beasts, and Dye like worms.
The early feminists do not consciously congregate as a political
movement but they do propose to establish female groups usually for
educational and self-educational purposes-they want to develop
" friendship " among women . (The concept of female friendship is
very close to that of "sisterhood" as it is advocated in the Women's
Movement today.) Clearly a larger rebellion crossed their minds. As
Mary Astell writes :
. . . women are not so well united as to form an Insurrection . They
are for the most part Wise enough
to
Love their Chains , and
to
di scern how very becomingly they sit . They think as humbly of
themselves as their Masters can wish, with respect
to
the other Sex ,
but in regard
to
theirown , they havea Spice of Masculine Ambition ,
everyone woul' d Lead , and none will Follow .. . therefore as
to
those Women who find themselves born for Slavery, and are so
sensible oftheir own Meanness to conclude it impossible to attain
to
anything excellent, since they are , or ought
to
be , the best
acquainted with their own Strength and Genius , She's a Fool who
