How to Think Like a Woman

Four Women Philosophers Who Taught Me How to Love the Life of the Mind

De: Regan Penaluna

Narrado por: Angie Kane

As a young woman growing up in 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 academic—the first step, she believed, to becoming a self-determined person living a life of the mind. What she 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, 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 women philosophers: Mary Astell, who 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, Penaluna blends memoir, biography, and criticism to tell the stories of these four women, weaving throughout an alternative history of philosophy. Funny, honest, and wickedly intelligent, this is a moving meditation on what philosophy could look like if women were treated equally.

©2023 Regan Penaluna (P)2023 Dreamscape Media

The untold story of philosophy

A great listen. I loved how the book was structured as the unfolding of the stories of women philosophers, intertwined with the author's introspection about her own journey as a philosopher in and out of academia.

The book is a wonderful hommage to the four main women philosophers covered therein, as well as all the other women briefly surveyed in the Bedtime Stories chapter.

A welcome change

I am so glad I purchased this book. To hear about these four women philosophers was well worth the time. I love the bits of memoir throughout. I was angered many times by the fact that men would dismiss the thoughts of women because they were women. It reminds me of how even today women are seen as second class. However, the introduction to women philosophers and thinkers was a great way to re-introduce these forgotten women.

A real life quest for the disappeared wise women of human history

There was nothing I disliked about this book. It cracked the world of feminist philosophy, and philosophy in general, wide open for me. It made me value my own feminine nature and thinking more. It made me feel more confident in my natural thought processes. The image on the cover was uncomfortable to look at while reading the book. (I read the hardcopy in tandem with listening to the audio book). Seeing a woman with a smothering blanket over her head while reading a book was uncomfortable at times. As I learned of important female thinkers throughout history and how their stories were buried, the image choice seemed apt. By the end of the book, I could picture the woman on the cover unraveling that smothering blanket, standing up, being proud and rightfully taking her equal power and place in history. I appreciated the personal narrative woven into the history of philosophy. It was relatable and made the headiness of philosophical theories more relevant and accessible, Thank you Regan Penaluna for opening my eyes to the rich world of the thinking mind and all of the players in it. I am inspired to go now and proudly take my place in history as well.

An education

An inspiring read for those interested in the endeavor of women finding place in literary and philosophical society with the author’s personal story vulnerably and honestly woven through the philosophers she has brought to light. An enjoyable read I will share with my peers. Recommended.

Highly recommend!

This is a superb book on the minds of women and how they were shaped and mostly dismissed by society. It's particularly important in the light of project 2025.