How to Think Like a Woman: Four Women Philosophers Who Taught Me How to Love the Life of the Mind

From a bold new voice in nonfiction, an exhilarating account of the lives and works of influential 17^th and 18^th century feminist philosophers Mary Wollstonecraft and her contemporaries who have been written out of history, and a searing look at the author's experience of patriarchy and sexism in academia

As a young woman growing up in small-town Iowa, Regan Penaluna daydreamed about the big questions: Who are we and what is this strange world we find ourselves in? In college she fell in love with philosophy and chose to pursue it as an academician, the first step, she believed, to becoming a self-determined person living a life of the mind. What Penaluna didn't realize was that the Western philosophical canon taught in American universities, as well as the culture surrounding it, would slowly grind her down through its misogyny, its harassment, its devaluation of women and their intellect. Where were the women philosophers?

One day, in an obscure monograph, Penaluna came across Damaris Cudworth Masham's name. The daughter of philosopher Ralph Cudworth and a contemporary of John Locke, Masham wrote about knowledge and God, and the condition of women. Masham's work led Penaluna to other remarkable women philosophers of the era: Mary Astell, who moved to London at age twenty-one and made a living writing philosophy; Catharine Cockburn, a philosopher, novelist, and playwright; and the better-known Mary Wollstonecraft, who wrote extensively in defense of women's minds. Together, these women rekindled Penaluna's love of philosophy and awakened her feminist consciousness.

In How to Think Like a Woman, Regan Penaluna blends memoir, biography, and criticism to tell the stories of these four women, weaving throughout an alternative history of philosophy as well as her own search for love and truth. Funny, honest, and wickedly intelligent, this is a moving meditation on what philosophy could look like if women were treated equally.

"A sharp-eyed reappraisal of four brilliant women in history -- and a provocative challenge to the philosophy bros." — Helen Lewis, author of Difficult Women

"[Penaluna's] story of rebuilding and reimagining personally and professionally demonstrates defiant independence from patriarchal prescriptions and their shame and an embrace of feminist anger, ambiguity, and diversity of thought." — Kirkus

"Incisive...Penaluna skillfully captures the thinking of these four women in impassioned prose as she challenges sexism in the canon...Lucid and frank, this blend of memoir, biography, and criticism makes a solid case for why representation matters." — Publishers Weekly

Regan Penaluna is a writer and journalist based in Brooklyn. Previously, she was an editor at Nautilus Magazine and Guernica, where she wrote and edited long-form stories and interviews. A feature she wrote was listed in the Atlantic as one of "100 Exceptional Works of Journalism."