Role of Women During the Enlightenment

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Role of Women During the Enlightenment
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Salons and Their Hostesses

• The salons were cultural institutions dating back
  to the early 17th century, extending from the
  institutionalized court where royal women had
  entertained the city elite.
• Parisian salons were distinguished from all-male
  literary circles and the society of cabarets and
  cafes, for they were dominated by women.
• Aristocratic and upper bourgeoisie women, called
  salonnieres organized and ran the salons from
  their homes. They set the tone and goals of the
  gatherings and helped bring writers, artists,
  philosophers, and other various patrons together.
• From 1770 to 1830, Paris went through a number of
  political, social, and cultural changes. The
  arrival of the Enlightenment, French Revolution
  and the Restoration each left their mark on the
  Parisian salons.
• Enlightenment salons brought a new element of
  seriousness and regularity to the salon as they
  formed the social base of the Republic of Letters
  and thus contributed to the social project of
  Enlightenment.

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The Salon of Madame Geoffrin

• Lacking in social status, attractiveness, and
  education, the salon of Madame Geoffrin was one
  of the wonders of the social world.
• She was orphaned at a young age and married the
  wealthy director of the royal glassworks at
  Saint-Gobain. In her twenties she began
  apprenticing at the salon of her neighbor, Madame
  de Tencin.
• Philosophes, artists, nobles, princes,
  ambassadors, politicians, and reformers flocked
  to Mme. Geoffrins. On Monday nights, her guests
  were mostly artists. Wednesday night dinners
  were primarily literary themed. Mme. Geoffrins
  salon was characterized by interested guests
  providing stimulating intellectual debate.

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Madame Geoffrin (cont.)

• Mme. Geoffrin made two innovative changes in the
  way her salon was run. She switched the
  traditional late night dinner to one-oclock to
  allow for an entire afternoon of discussion.
• She created a regular weekly salon dinner
  schedule.
• Mme. Geoffrins salon became popular because she
  was a sympathetic listener, a generous woman, and
  could bring the best out of others.
• On Sundays her salon wasnt open, instead she
  distributed bags of money to the poorer folk.

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The Salon of Madame Stäel

• Mme. Stäel was the daughter of famous salonniere
  Suzanne Necker and James Necker, the Swiss
  Director of Finance under Louis XVI.
• Mme. Stäels grew up in a setting rich in
  intelligence and learning, and was surrounded by
  all the facilities of affluence.
• Mme. Stäel was a frequent guest at her mothers
  salon while growing up, giving her the
  opportunity to take interest in a variety of
  subjects and to converse at a level beyond her
  age.
• At the age of twenty she married the Baron von
  Stäel Holstein, the Swedish ambassador to France,
  and due to this marriage, she gained an
  influential position in the social world of Paris
• Mme. Stäel became a talented stateswoman,
  novelist, playwright, actress, metaphysician, and
  musician. Her kindness, generosity, animated
  writing, and clever tact earned her the respect
  and admiration of many
• The Salon that she came to run became considered
  as the most brilliant in Parisat the height of
  its vogue.

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Madame Stäel (cont.)

• She was in the good graces of Marie Antoinette,
  but commented that the court was so lavish and
  the members so spoiled that it demoralized life
• She was present when the king was violently
  dethroned on October 6, 1790, and often offered
  shelter at her home to popular leaders who needed
  protection and a place to hide
• Became close with Charles Maurice de Tallyrand
  and Louis de Norbonne, which caused many to
  question her intentions she and Norbonne would
  often speak of democracy, even though they would
  support the monarchy until it fell
• When it did fall, however Mme Stäel was forced to
  escape to Switzerland, after saving so many other
  lives from the wrath of the lower classes
• She bravely returned to Paris in April of 1795
  with a new lover in tow and began to host a
  dinner every ten days inviting people of all
  varying opinions and on particular days she
  entertained separately the leaders of the
  various cliques.
• Her book De la Littérature was considered the
  first serious effort to introduce France to the
  underlying characteristics of German and English
  literature

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The Salon of Madame Récamier

• Was renown for her exquisite beauty it was even
  said that, unlike with Mme Geoffrin and Mme Stäel
  who had attracted people on their intelligence,
  it was Mme Récamier beauty that attracted guests
• Though she was not known for the exceptional
  intelligence, she was noted for her excellent
  tact and her gift for listening
• She attracted writers, politicians, artists, and
  many a distinguished foreigner

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Our Stand

• Although they were able to gain minimum
  knowledge, and make a step towards equal rights,
  the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment
  didnt provide any particular benefits for women
  during their time.

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Reason 1 Opportunities to be Involved were a
Minimum

• Many Women during the Enlightenment didnt have
  the opportunity to pursue an education in
  Sciences, and the quality of education they
  received was degraded from what it used to be.
• Why? ---- They were to believed to be ignorant,
  and not capable of understanding.
• A man by the name of Malebranche once said, All
  things of an abstracted nature are
  incomprehensible to them women, they cannot
  employ their imagination in disentangling
  compound questions (http//www.public.iastate.edu
  .)
• Malebranche is basically saying that women are
  not as intellectual as men.
• And because of this view on women, they were not
  allowed to attend classes other than those
  necessary to being a wife.

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How does this Play into Women Not Benefiting?

• We can look at Madame du Chatelet.
• She was part of an upper class family in
• Paris
• Wife of Voltaire (famous for his works
• criticizing Dogma)
• Highly intelligenthad skills in Latin,
• Italian, and many more, but her favorite was
  Mathematics.
• Since higher education was reserved for men,
• Madame du Chatelet hired professors to teach her
• everything from writing to geometry

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(Madame du Chatelet continued)

• Most impressive accomplishment
• translation of Principia, Sir Issac Newtons work
• She able to comprehend the abstract things
• in Newtons book, something many people could
  never begin to do
• Later, when Chatelet tried to join the Royal
  Academy of Scientists, a place where science was
  discussed, she was denied.
• It was definitely not because of her lack of
  intelligence, because we know she was up there
  with all the men, it was because of one thing
  she was woman.
• Just like this, capable women were restricted
  from expressing their knowledge, and learning
  more

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Reason 2 Society just couldnt see women as
being as good as men

• Women were seen as nothing more that housewives.
• They were supposed to clean, cook, and take care
  of their families.
• Some even saw them only as child-bearers
• Since we are talking about the Scientific
  Revolution, you might think that this
  intellectual revolution would change the views of
  men.
• Instead, they used the new science discoveries to
  prove women were inferior.
• But, how? One theory uses the anatomy of males
  and females to prove male dominance

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Reason 2 Society just couldnt see women as
being as good as men (continued)

• Overall, men were just out to say that women were
  subordinate to them. They were just there to take
  part in the domestic areas.
• An interesting quote----
• A man said this regarding the excellent works of
  a woman academic
• The writings are so good, you would hardly
  believe they were dont by a women at all
• This just shows, men did not want to believe that
  some woman could be as smart as them.

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Jean-Jaques Rousseau

• This typical view of women being inferior was
• greatly expressed in the works of Rousseau.
• Rousseau was born in Geneva his lifetime took
• place after Louis XIV---he was involved in the
  French Revolution
• Wrote several books on education, government, and
  women including Emile ou de l education, and Du
  Contrat social
• The Emile ou de leductaion argued that the
  social roles of women and men should be different
• Main Fact about Rousseau HE WAS ANTI-WOMENS
  RIGHTS!

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Heres a Run Down of Rousseaus ANTI-WOMAN
thoughts

• A woman is a link between the child and father
• She is to maintain unity of the family
• Men and woman should NOT have same education
• Separate Spheres for Men and Women
• To please men, to be useful to them, to make
  herself loved and honored by them, to raise them
  when young, to care for them when grown, to
  counsel them, to console them, to make their
  lives agreeable and sweet---these are the duties
  of women at all times.
• He like many other, believed women were not, and
  couldnt be anything more that simple domestic
  wives

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With Views like that, Someone is going to get
argue

• Rousseaus fellow debater was
• Mary Wollstonecraft
• Born in London, England
• She was a school head master
• -thats where she began to realize the
• subordination of women in terms of
• education
• Writer of Thoughts on the Education of Daughters,
  and History and Moral View of the Origins and
  Progress of the French Revolution
• In 1792, she published A Vindication of the
  Rights of Woman, a text of hers that received the
  most attention

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Mary Wollstonecraft

• Was the daughter of a handkerchief weaver, and
  was born in Spitalfields, London in 1759
• In 1784 she opened a school in Newington Green,
  where she made friends with Richard Price, a
  minister at the local chapel, where she also
  because close with Prices friend, Joseph
  Priestly
• Price had written the book Review of the
  Principal Questions of Morals where he argued
  that individual conscience and reason should be
  used in making moral choices also rejected
  concept of original sin and eternal punishment
  (was, at times, accused of being an atheist OH NO
  AN ATHEIST!)
• Mary was greatly influenced by Price, and this
  was made apparent by her 1786 book, Thoughts on
  the Education of Girls, where she attacked
  traditional teaching methods and suggested new
  topics that should be studied by girls

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A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

• Is like the rebuttle to Rousseas Separate
  Spheres for Men
• and Women
• Focused on importance of equal status of both
  men, and women
• And that education was the key for a womans
  success
• Mary Wollstonecraft was an extreme feminist who
  helped women make a step towards gaining equal
  right in the 20th century.

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Vindication of the Rights of Women

• Is considered Wollstonecrafts most important
  book
• In it, she attacked the education restrictions
  that kept women in a state of ignorance and
  slavish dependence, "and was especially critical
  of a society that encouraged women to be docile
  and attentive to their looks to the exclusion of
  all else
• She called marriage legal prostitution and
  added that women may be convenient slaves, but
  slavery will have its constant effect, degrading
  the master and the abject dependent.
• Her book caused much controversy, with passionate
  people on both sides of the argument many a
  vituperative comment was made. She had even
  shocked other radicals, who had declared that
  education for women would have been pointless
• Mary had to flee to France, but there died in
  childbirth after marriage. Her daughter was Mary
  Shelby the author of the famous Frankenstein

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Vindication of the Rights of Man

• Price, in one sermon, had praised the French
  Revolution and argued that the British people,
  like the French, had the right to remove a bad
  king from power
• Edmund Burke had, in reply to the sermon, written
  an opposing pamphlet entitled Reflections on the
  Revolution in France, and Mary, in turn, wrote
  one of her most famous documents The
  Vindication of the Rights of Man
• In VotRoM, she supported Price and argued that
  certain functions of society, like the slave
  trade, game laws, and the way poor people were
  treated, was wrong
• It was this book that brought her to the
  attention of many people, including Thomas Paine
  and William Blake

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A Vindication of the Rights of Women

• Excerpt from A Vindication of the Rights of
  Women It is vain to expect virtue from women
  till they are in some degree independent of men
  nay, it is vain to expect that strength of
  natural affection which would make them good
  wives and mothers. Whilst they are absolutely
  dependent upon their husbands they will be
  cunning, mean, and selfish. The preposterous
  distinction of rank, which render civilization a
  curse, by dividing the world between voluptuous
  tyrants and cunning envious dependents, corrupt,
  almost equally, every class of people.

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Olympe de Gouges

• Was born in 1748 in Montauban near Toulouse in
  France as Marie Gouze.
• Little attention was given to her education
  therefore, she could hardly read or write, and
  only spoke French poorly and later dictated all
  of her work to a secretary.
• Moved to pre-revolutionary Paris and changed her
  name to blend in more with the people of the
  city.
• Lived under the support of her lover and
  underwent criticism for this to achieve her dream
  of becoming a writer.
• Attempted to live in Paris as a theater author
  but she did not succeed.
• Once wrote, Why this unswerving prejudice
  against my sex? Will it ever be allowed for
  women to escape from the terror of poverty other
  than by base means.
• In 1789, began to write politically after the
  beginning of revolutionary events.
• (cont)

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Olympe de Gouges

• Printed her social-political ideas onto posters
  with her own money and hung them around Paris.
• Wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Women and
  Women Citizens not soon after.
• Wrote The Three Urns or the Welfare of the
  Fatherland and was arrested for the opinions
  expressed in the paper, for which she was
  eventually arrested, for she had been a major
  supporter of the Girondists, she had suggested a
  referendum on three possible forms of government
• She had also publicly defended the king in
  December 1782, mostly for humanitarian reasons
  she wanted to achieve a reformation of society
  through words, through her writing and her
  continual appeals for nonviolence
• She thus remained a true representative of the
  enlightenment despite her differences with
  Rousseau
• She was beheaded on November 3, 1793 after an
  unfair trial not only for her being a member of
  the Girondists but because she supported womens
  rights, for two weeks after her death, her body
  was held up in front of the crowd to show what
  would happen to those who supported women

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Olympe de Gouges

• Excerpt from Declaration of the Rights of Woman
  and the Female Citizen ignorance, omission,
  and scorn for the rights of women are only causes
  of public misfortune and of the corruption of
  governments, the women have resolved to set
  forth in a solemn declaration the natural,
  inalienable, and sacred rights of woman in order
  that this declaration, constantly exposed before
  all the members of this society, will ceaselessly
  remind them of their rights and duties in order
  that the authoritative acts of women and
  authoritative acts of men may be at any moment
  compared with and respectful of the purpose of
  all political institutions and in order that the
  citizens demands, henceforth based on simple and
  incontestable principles, will always support the
  constitution, good morals, and the happiness of
  all.

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A Quick Sum Up of why Women did not Benefit

• 1 Lack of Opportunities
• 2 Views of Society
• 3 Especially the views of men Remember Rosseau,
  the ANTI-FEMINIST guy.
• Along with educational setbacks, women still did
  not have many political rights during this time
  such as property owning, or voting like the men.