Women in the Age of Enlightenment

Dr. Michelle Marrese (New York University, PhD in Northwestern University, 1995),
Fulbright Scholar, Moscow State University, Spring 2008

Course description:
The eighteenth century has often been described as a century of women. As Enlightenment thinkers challenged traditional ideas about the nature of society and government, they also rekindled the debate about woman's place in society. Women themselves contributed to these debates, assuming a prominent public role as salon hostesses and as enthusiastic consumers and producers of print culture. Yet, by the end of the eighteenth century, critics of the monarchy in France declared that the "disorder of women" lay at the heart of the corrupt regime and prescribed an immediate return to family life for women more at home in the world of the court and the salon. This course will examine the key debates on woman's nature in the philosophy of the Enlightenment and the significance of these debates in the lives of elite women. The first half of the course will focus on discussions of women's nature and abilities among prominent Enlightenment thinkers in France, Great Britain, and Germany. The second half of the course will focus on the impact of Enlightenment thought on women's lives in England and continental Europe, in Russia, and the American colonies. We will discuss changes in women's education, their role in the family, and their status in law and society. Finally, we will end by considering the role of women and the significance of gender in the French Revolution and its aftermath. Throughout the semester, we will focus on a central historical question: was the Enlightenment a liberating movement that redefined gender relations and created new opportunities for women, or did its recasting of feminine identity culminate in the exclusion of women from public life? The format of the course will consist primarily of lectures in English, with some opportunities for discussion of the readings.

Lecture schedule:
Week 1: Women in Enlightenment Philosophy
Week 2: Salonnières and Bluestockings: Women, Education, and Cultural Authority
Week 3: Women and Print Culture: The Novel as a Feminist Invention
Week 4: The Mind Has No Sex? Women and Science
Week 5: Travelers' Tales: "Exotic" Societies and Conceptions of Gender
Week 6: Women in Public: Law, Court Politics, Art, Sociability
Week 7: The Philosophy of Rousseau and the Rise of the Domestic Woman
Week 8: "Remember the Ladies": Women in the American Revolution
Week 9: Princess Dashkova and the Russian Enlightenment
Week 10: Women and the Public Sphere in the French Revolution
Week 11: The Origins of Enlightenment Feminism in England and France