Enlightenment: Prominent Women

The women of the 1700s did not enjoy the same rights or status as men. Yet a number of women played an important role in the Enlightenment. Some helped nurture and spread Enlightenment thinking by hosting salons. Others extended ideas about rights and equality to women. Let's meet a few of these women.

One of the most prominent sponsors of salons was Madame Marie-Therese Rodet Geoffrin. Beginning in the mid 1700s, the brightest talents in Europe met in her home for lively talk about the latest ideas. Madame Geoffrin also gave financial support to the Encyclopedists, a group of men who put together the first encyclopedia.

At Madame Geoffrin's salons, princes and politicians mingled with artists, writers, and philosophers. Madame led these gatherings with a firm hand. She reserved Mondays for artists and Wednesdays for writers and philosophers. When discussions became heated, she would say, "There, that will do." The men quickly shifted their conversation to another topic. 

The following video is a student reenactment of Madame Geoffrin's salon.

Characters:

Madame Geoffrin (wealthy hostess)

Thomas Hobbes (men are evil = absolute authority)

John Locke (government exists to protect people's natural rights)

Mary Wollstonecraft (author, fought for women's rights)

Mozart (composer, musician)

Abigail Adams was married to John Adams, a leader of the American Revolution. Abigail firmly supported the movement for independence from England. She reminded John not to forget women. "Remember all men would be tyrants if they could," she wrote. "If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies, we are determined to foment (start) a Rebellion." Women, she went on, "will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice." Abigail also spoke out for a woman's right to education.

The Frenchwoman Olympe de Gouges was the daughter of a butcher. Despite being poorly educated, she became a writer and social reformer. In 1791, she published the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen. This document was her answer to the National Assembly's Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. De Gouges argued for women's equality with men in every aspect of public and private life. Women, she said, should have the right to vote, hold office, own property, and serve in the military. They should have equal power to men in family life and in the church.

The French revolutionaries mocked de Gouges's ideas and her efforts to organize women. When she spoke out against the bloodshed of the revolution, they branded her a traitor. In 1793, she was sent to the guillotine. 

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"Regardless of what barriers confront you, it is in your power to free yourselves--you have only to want to." --de Gouges

English writer Mary Wollstonecraft was another early leader in the struggle to gain equal rights for women. In an essay published in 1792, she argued that women deserved the same rights and opportunities as men. "Let woman share the rights," she wrote, "and she will emulate imitate the virtues of men, for she will grow more perfect when free." Wollstonecraft believed that education was the key to gaining equality and freedom. She called for reforms to give women the same education as men. In the 19th century, her ideas about equality for women inspired early leaders of the women's rights movement in the United States.