Gender and the Enlightenment in Europe Elisabeth Wallmann Jacques-Louis David, Madame François Buron (1769) Source: Art Institute, Chicago

Who were Enlightenment Women Who were Enlightenment Women? From the sexless mind to the ‘two-sexes theory’

Descartes and the sexless mind: François Poullain de La Barre (1647-1723)

‘A woman is woman not only in one place [i. e ‘A woman is woman not only in one place [i.e. the sex organs], but anywhere you choose to look.’ Female skeleton in Mme Thiroux d’Arconville, Traité d’Ostéologie (translation of Anatomy of the Human Bones, 1759), Vol.2 (Pierre Roussel, Systême physique et moral de la femme (Paris, 1775), p. 2.)

Women in the Study: Examples and Conditions This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA Émilie le Tonnelier de Breteuil, marquise Du Châtelet-Lomont (1706-1749) Laura Bassi (1711-1778)

Inclusion / Exclusion in eighteenth-century academies of sciences: The example of Bologna 1732: Laura Bassi becomes professor in philosophy at the University of Bologna and a member of the Academy of the Institute of the Sciences 1732: Laura Bassi defends her doctoral thesis

BUT they are not “feminists”! ‘I am happy to have renounced in mid-course frivolous things that occupy most women for their entire lives; I wish to spend what time I have left to cultivate my mind.’ (Gabrielle Émilie le Tonnelier de Breteuil, marquise du Châtelet, ‘Préface du traducteur’ (of Mandeville’s Fable of the Bees), Studies on Voltaire, with Some Unpublished Papers of Mme du Châtelet, ed. Ira O. Wade (P)

‘She was born with enough intelligence, but in her desire to appear smarter than she is, she has chosen to study science instead of far more pleasant subjects.  She believes that by such odd behavior, she will acquire a greater reputation and an advantage over all other women.’ (Marquise du Deffand (source: Eon Images))

Women and the Rise of the Novel Sophie von La Roche (1730-1807), here depicted on the cover of her autobiographical work ‘My Desk’ Source: http://data.theeuropeanlibrary.org/Collection/a0660

Women in the Public Sphere: French Salons Source: The Salons Project, ‘Findings’ <http://blogs.memphis.edu/salonsproject/findings/>

Women in the Domestic Sphere: Women as Mothers of the Nation Marie-Antoinette and her Children by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun (1787)

Women as enlightened pedagogues: Jeanne Marie Leprince de Beaumont (1711-1780)

Women and the Public/Private Sphere Josefa Amar y Borbón (1749–1833)

The Radical Enlightenment: Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792)