WOMEN

AND THE

ENLIGHTENMENT

OBJECTI VES•To understand Enlightenment ideas as they related to women during the 18th c.

•To recognize important individuals and their contributions in this area during the time.

•To analyze the relations between ideas of the 18th c. to the women’s rights today.

Some promotion of women’s rights Liberty & equality should apply to women and men

Laid foundations of modern feminism

Inferiority and suppression continuesDenied liberty and equality Rise of Cult of Domesticity

WOMEN AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT

BACKGROUND : Foundations of potential gender equality found in the works of 17th century philosophes and thinkers.

Descartes: All women had the ability to be educated

Locke: Women equally independent in state of nature

WOMEN AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT

THE PHILOSOPHES ON WOMEN THE POSITIVE VIEWS Some blamed society for women’s inequality

Believed in women’s intellectual potential

MARQUIS DE CONDORCET:

Argued that women should have equal rights regarding:

•Citizenship

•Education

1790 publishes:

De l'admission des femmes au droit de cité

"For the Admission to the Rights of Citizenship For Women”

WOMEN AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT

THE PHILOSOPHES ON WOMEN

THE NEGATIVE VIEWS Promotion of old notions of women’s inferiority & weakness

Women continually linked with irrationality & emotion

Excluded women from discussions of:

Liberty

Equality

Reason

Science

WOMEN AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT

THE PHILOSOPHES ON WOMEN

ROUSSEAU

Social contract included one between men & women

Men protect women while women serve men

Emile: articulation of idea of SEPARATE SPHERES

Patriarchal families

men’s roles were in the PUBLIC sphere

women’s roles were in the PRIVATE sphere

glorification of women in a domestic role

DOMINANT VIEW TODAY?

WOMEN AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT

WOMEN OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT

Many women recognized how the ideas of Enlightenment were important.

Women influenced Enlightenment as salonnieres & sponsors

Women began to demand greater role in the intellectual life around them

Women began demand that the inequities between men and women be broken down.

MARIE-THÉRÈSE RODET GEOFFRIN

 One of a very number of women to actively

participate in the Enlightenment.

WOMEN AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT

WOMEN OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT

MARY ASTELL (1666-1731)

Challenged notion of separate spheres

Criticized lack of liberties for women

Advocated equal educational opportunities

Considered first English feminist

IF ALL MEN ARE BORN FREE, HOW IS IT THAT ALL WOMEN ARE BORN

SLAVES?

WOMEN AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT

WOMEN OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT (1759-1797)

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

oadvocated equality of sexes

odeveloped main doctrines of women’s movement

oeducation was key to equality and independence

oargued that women’s education should be equal to their social position

owomen are essential to the nation because they educate its children

Women were not ornaments or property but human beings that deserved the same rights as men.

WOMEN AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT

WOMEN OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT

OLYMPE DE GOUGES (1745-1793)

1791: Déclaration des droits de la Femme et de la Citoyenne 

Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen

•women had ability to reason and make moral decisions

•women not same as men, but equal

•women had right to free speech

WOMEN AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT

Did not result in real advances for most women in 18th c.

Education extended but:

became gender specific

women excluded from many fields

women discouraged from higher education

Cult of Domesticity:

restricted women’s roles and opportunities

gave birth to:

new feminist consciousness

advocacy of rights & opportunities for women