 Astell’s account of the mind–body union allows her to argue against the popular view of the period about women, according to which women do not demonstrate the same kinds of intellectual abilities as do men because women are inherently more closely united to their bodies than are men (Broad 2002a, 109). Equip with the rationalist account of the mind–body union, Astell can show that the uniformity of women’s inabilities is rooted not in their natures, but arises because of social practices.  Thus the difference between the abilities of women and men should be explained not metaphysically, but epistemologically.  For this reason, I will leave a discussion of this issue to section 2.3 of this entry.