Astell presents a proposal to the women of her day. She proposes a monastery created solely for the betterment of women. This place will help to keep women from sin and allow them to grow in knowledge and in Godliness. This place would be a new society for women to be free from sin and return to the state in which Eve lived. There would be no competition, but for God's love.
Astell wishes to liberate women from the confines of solely learning what society will allow. She dreams of a world where women are able to learn useful things that can make them more able to contribute to society. Women will become scholars who are able to learn anything. She believes that women should become experts on fewer subjects rather than knowing very little about many subjects.
If women were created with the ability to become more intelligent then it is against God to not nurture this intelligence. She believes that it is essential for women to build their knowledge and become more intelligent. She fears that without nurture, we will lose our God-given ability to discern right from wrong.
Women should be equipped to be wiser. A knowledgeable woman may not be able to contribute, but a wise one will be able to stay away from the follies of others. She will be able to be good and worthy of Heaven.
The French women should be emulated because they are wiser. They are able to learn more about the world. There is not an argument to become teachers in the church, just to know enough to be good Christians. She argues that there is a need to know Christianity without being able to be persuaded.
The women will surely agree with her contentions, however, she is unsure of how the men will feel. She says that they will not want to share the ability to be learned. She wants to defend her sex as strongly as they have protected theirs. She believes that she has the approval of the Holy Spirit for this work, and that is all that she needs.
