Analyze the debate over women's role in the Enlightenment and as part of the intellectual community.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Mary Wollstonecraft pointed out in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman that there was an inherent contradiction for philosophes to argue for the liberation of slaves and against the subjugation of men under a tyrannical king, but still maintain the position that women were not equal to men on the basis of gender. Many philosophes had intellectually acknowledged that reason did not rely on physical determination, particularly with the philosophy of Cartesian dualism, but others, such as Rousseau, argued that women were irrational and inferior, and therefore should have no place in the intellectual community, salons, or debates; they should restrict their intellectual inclinations to instructing their children. To allow women to participate in the social forum of intellectual debate was contributing to the overall decline of civilization. Some physicians upheld this view. Wollstonecraft argued that if any defects were present in women, they existed because women had been denied adequate education, and that if it were provided, perceived inequalities would disappear.