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Women and the Enlightenment

Women and the Enlightenment. Most Parisan salons were organized by women Would use their social and political connections to keep the philosophes out of censorship Marquise de Pompadour, Louis XV’s mistress, critical in helping Diderot avoid censorship.

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Women and the Enlightenment

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  1. Women and the Enlightenment • Most Parisan salons were organized by women • Would use their social and political connections to keep the philosophes out of censorship • Marquise de Pompadour, Louis XV’s mistress, critical in helping Diderot avoid censorship

  2. Madame Marie Geoffrin ran the most celebrated salon in Paris • Attended by Montesquieu, Jefferson, Diderot, and Smith • The Enlightenment made people reexamine their notions of gender roles and women’s rights made some progress

  3. The salon of Madame Marie Thérèse Geoffrin (1699–1777) was one of the most important Parisian gathering spots for Enlightenment writers during the middle of the eighteenth century. Well-connected women such as Madame Geoffrin were instrumental in helping the philosophes they patronized to bring their ideas to the attention of influential people in French society and politics. Chateaux de Malmaison et Bois-Preau, Rueil-Malmaison. Bridgeman-Giraudon/Art Resource, NY

  4. Montesquieu on Women • believed in equality of the sexes and had a traditional view of family and marriage • Males still dominated marriage and family • Valued role of women in society • Opposed legal restrictions placed on women’s rights

  5. The Education of Women (669-671) Read each selection. Prepare a point-of-view summary on Rousseau and Wollstonecraft. Rousseau’s Emile Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

  6. Rousseau’s Emile (1762) • felt women should be submissive to men • Advocated the idea of men and women occupying separate spheres • Men had ability to think at a higher level • Women were better with practical problems • Women should be educated to require skills to inhabit the household

  7. Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication for the Rights of Woman (1792) • defended equality of women with men based on human reason • argues that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be only because they lack education. • suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason.

  8. The Encyclopedia suggested ways to improve women’s lives, but did not suggest reform • Summary: Women made marginal gains during the Enlightenment • Focus on religious fanaticism and reason, not gender inequality • Only wealthy noblewomen had access to the salon life • Works of feminists set agenda for next century

  9. Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women • P. 670 • Read your section, outline, detail, and provide a main idea sentence on the view of Wollstonecraft • Be prepared to share

  10. What are the “rights of women” in today’s society? If they differ from those enjoyed by men, which rights are the most important?

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