Regan Penaluna entered academia with aspirations of becoming a philosopher and joining the ranks of others who live a life of the mind, exploring life's deepest questions. What she found was misogyny, deeply embedded not just in the halls of her universities, but in the very area of study she loved. She found herself contending with both the male gaze, but also the "male glance"--a consistent ignoring and devaluing of her work as a philosopher. When she came across a reference to Damaris Cudworth Masham, a contemporary of John Locke, she embarked on a mission to unearth the voices and philosophies of other women of the mind.

Here she examines Masham, Mary Astell, Catharine Cockburn, and Mary Wollstonecraft, both their lives and philosophies, which can't be separated in the telling because of the many obstacles each faced as women attempting to join conversations dominated and gate-kept by men. I am not a student of philosophy and wasn't sure how this book would work for me, but I was surprised to find myself fascinated. Penaluna is a fantastic storyteller, and she weaves her own story into the narratives of the lives of these women, as well as their philosophies, some of which are littered with internalized misogyny, but are also by necessity often focused on the wrong-headed inferior status of women in society.