Early Modern Englishwomen Testing Ideas explores how women in England participated in the considerable intellectual and cultural diversity which characterised the late early modern period. This collection looks particularly at early modern women philosophers, playwrights and novelists, and considers how they engaged with ideas and debates over philosophical and scientific ideas, as well as literary innovations.

Introduction; Part I Philosophy and Science; Chapter 1 Mary Astell's Machiavellian Moment? Politics and Feminism in Moderation truly Stated, Jacqueline Broad; Chapter 2 'that you may, be]... as wise as Angels': the Religious Foundations of Mary Astell's Proposal for the Ladies, Parts I and II, Michal Michelson; Chapter 3 Disruptive Behaviour in the Making of Science: Cavendish and the Community of Seventeenth-Century Science, Jo Wallwork; Chapter 4 The Magnetic Attraction of Margaret Cavendish and Walter Charleton, L.E Semler; Part II Women and Drama; Chapter 5 'Yes, and': Margaret Cavendish, the Passions and Hermaphrodite Agency, Alexandra G. Bennett; Chapter 6 Virginian Culture and Experimental Genre in Aphra Behn's The Widow Ranter, David McInnis; Part III Politics and Intrigue; Chapter 7 'La Femme Forte': Katherine Philips and the Politics of her Dublin Writings, 1662-3, Rosalinde Schut; Chapter 8 Narrative Person, Perspective and Voice in Eliza Haywood's The Adventures of Eovaai, Joanna Fowler;