Essay on Women Rights During the Enlightenment

In this assignment I will be talking about enlightenment and how sociologists discard women and their main focus is on the man, then I will include how feminist theorists challenge enlightenment representations with their theories about inequality and power. Also including how this affected women throughout. The Enlightenment period was a movement that dominated the world in Europe during the 18th century. Philosophers of the period shared their ideas through meetings at scientific academies, these philosophers were mainly white and male. Men were seen as a representative of rational thought and inhabit areas of understanding. Whereas women were seen as having irrational thought, this led to a distinction of sex and led to the theory that men and women were different based on biological makeup. This introduces how women were represented and had implications for example women weren’t allowed to have the same education as men.

Dualism was also something present during this period and thought the other of ‘man’ was ‘woman’. In the period of dualistic thinking, it was thought that men ‘are masters of mind, culture, and masculinity.’ ‘This positions women as mistresses of passion and emotion’ This in itself explains that women are seen as the subjects of men and how they supposedly think with their hearts. One example of a philosophers in the Enlightenment period who didn’t know the value of women is ‘Immanuel KANT. Kant defines ‘enlightenment’ as the process of man coming to maturity. Another statement he made was that ‘femininity is inappropriate’. Many philosophers including Kant believed women were not capable of reasoning and moral responsibility. Helga Varden's main interests were Kant and his book ‘political writings’ (1970) and she published ‘KANT and women’ in this she includes that Kant refers to women as ‘passive citizens’ and men as ‘active citizens’. This enforces the distinction of sex and links passiveness to women and the only people contributing to society are men as active can be described as engaging and leads to the idea that women don’t do this.

In a book by Hamilton (1992) ‘enlightenment and the pursuit of modernity’ during this era, it states there was a new mode of thought for man and society and it pushed away from religion. It was more concerned with the ‘emancipation of man from the ties of superstition....’ From the book it was thought that men were unhappy and with the process of enlightenment ‘institutions could make men happier and free them from cruelty, injustice and despotism’. This indicates that they were not concerned with how women felt it was all about the man. This gives a representation that all contributors to enlightenment were male and gives no concern for women.

Furthermore, Genevieve Lloyd is an Australian philosopher, in her book ‘ The man of Reason’ she portrays that western political thought is masculine and highlights the fact that during essential periods women were excluded and this was due to Enlightenment thinkers view on gender roles. In the book feminist methodology’ by Carol et al quotes Lloyd, she explains the view on what individuals thought women’s roles were, e.g. ‘the proper place of women’s knowledge is confinement to the realm of feminine, domestic and maternal in natural subordination to male mastery’. This shows the inequality of where women are positioned in society and they’re only good for domestic purposes. Enlightenment backed this up as there was never talk on how women are affected and their struggle. The main subjects were men and how they were good for knowledge as they were rational and women were supposedly ‘irrational’. On the other hand, the book by Carol et al states that feminism brought dramatic changes e.g. ‘winning political struggles to allow women access to an education.’ Lloyd goes on to say that women have always been thought to be less inferior to men. Philosophers such as Kant and Rousseau and used them as examples she used as their way of thinking was that women were a benefit to the man. Quoting Kant he says ‘a woman who has a head full of Greek… may as well even have a beard....’ This statement enforces the point that women were not taken seriously and did not have the right to express themselves or reason. The section where he says ‘ ..may as well even have a beard’ indicates that he believes only men should reason. ( Kant : 1995b; 581 -2)

Jean Jacques Rousseau ( 1712 -1778) was a philosopher who influenced the progress of the Enlightenment, Rousseau proposed a modern education for men, and women’s role was to strongly be supportive, and this view was strongly supported by his publication of ‘the social contract’ (1762). In this, it was introduced that he admired ‘antique manliness’ and insisted on the subordination of women. This represents that during this era, women were placed in a lower position and did not allow women to be educated as a part of society's subordination of women to men. Rousseau proposed a modern education for men, and women’s role was to strongly be supportive, and this view was strongly supported by his publication of ‘the social contract’. In this, it was introduced that he admired antique manliness and insisted on the subordination of women. This represents that during this era, women were placed in a lower position and did not allow women to be educated as a part of society's subordination of women to men.

Moreover, prior to the 18th century, many women gained knowledge from correspondence with males because books were not as accessible to them. A known feminist who criticized a lot of Rousseau’s points was Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759 - 1797) was an advocate for women’s rights from the 18th century until the 20th century. She argued that ‘women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be only because they lack education.’ She suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason. During that period women were not seen to be capable of contributing to society, it was believed women were too fragile to be able to think clearly. She disagreed with Rousseau who believed women were to be enshrined in the home. This relates to Wollstonecraft’s points as she believed that women were not seen as smart as men because they weren’t given the same education. Rousseau’s main point were that women should only be educated on how to please men. Wollstonecraft published ‘A Vindication of the Rights of a Woman’ (1792) where she highlighted what Rousseau states which was ‘woman ought to be weak and passive because she has less bodily strength than man....’ he goes on to say that the whole point of a woman’s life is to be pleasing the man ‘this is her duty.. being the grand end of her existence’. This shows that women were seen as subjective objects and that their only role was to please males. Wollstonecraft says ‘It’s time to effect a revolution in female manners …. Labour by reforming themselves to reform the world’. This highlights that she wants women to become equal members of society and prepare women to contribute more productively to society just as a man do. She also includes ‘I do not wish them to have power over men but over themselves.’ This emphasis that she is not asking for women to dominate however she wants women to be intelligent and rational.

Some implications of seeing women as inferior to men were that in the 1800s women could not vote and it was not until 1918 that a woman was able to vote, even after helping out during the First World War, some men still believed women were not capable of having a say in political affairs. However, they had to be married if they wanted to vote. This proves the point of there being a representation of women that had been embedded in society from earlier periods and allowed them to make a distinction between what men and women could and couldn’t do.

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Carol Pateman (1940) is the second feminist that I will be talking about, she believed that liberal democracy was based on an unwritten contract between men from which women are excluded as full potential subjects. Based on her publication of ‘ the sexual contract’ (1988), she considered that this contract was in favor of men and how it aided how men have domination over women and the right to enjoy easy sexual access to women. In her words, the contract ‘is the vehicle through which men transform their natural right over women into the security of a civil patriarchal right’. For example, in the 1980s it was seen that in marriage a man has no limit to access his wife’s body, and denied that rape was possible in marriage. She used the forefathers of Enlightenment such as Weber, Marx, Durkheim, Locke, and many more, and believed that they developed what the freedom and rights were as a woman. To add Rousseau had given ideas for ‘the social contract’ and Pateman believed that women were excluded from this to create a sexual hierarchy.

Emile Durkheim published a book ‘The Division of labor’ and this promoted social solidarity he acknowledged the role of women and how they contribute to society e.g. ‘one sex having taken over the affective, the other the intellectual function.’ However, this exhibits the idea enforced in that era which is that women are more emotional and men more intellectual.

Above it is stated how men could have access to their wives’s bodies, unfortunately in the third world for example countries that are not in Europe and continents such as Africa also had a problem of not seeing women as their equals. For example, Oyeronke Oyewumi published ‘The Invention of women’ (1997) she stated ‘Gender is not a structure in precolonial Yoruba society and women don’t exist as a social category. This highlights that gender inequality is seen around the world and not just in one area. Also ‘the rape of women in colonial societies was a normal part of conquest’. This means that colonized countries had the mindset that women were weak and anything could be done with them, even disposed of. Colonization was already male-dominated and these societies that had been taken over did not know any better but to follow what their oppressors had shown them. The role of the suppression of women in the colonial conquest of the western world included the displacement of women, interiorization, and imposition of the nuclear family. From this era, women in third world countries still suffer and recently there has been the introduction of the me-too movement as a group of men assaulted a woman in India. This movement is a campaign against sexual harassment in the workplace and is evidence that women to this day suffer from harassment.

Mohanty (1994) is a feminist who looked at Western feminism and the ‘third world’, she believed that Western feminists were universalizing their experiences with the third world. In her publication ‘Under Western Eyes (1994) she states ‘Western feminism is its conflation with imperialism in the eyes of particular western women’.This states she thinks that Western feminism is a Western construct and links in with coloniality and imperialism. Taking into account that many national groups have been introduced in continents like Africa and Asia but even western media presents women of this world as oppressed. Which is how Mohanty explains it. ‘A homogenous notion of the oppression of women in the third world’. Recently there have been movements globally for example Me Too movement which originated in the US but has gone to third-world countries trying to be equal to the men and depict that women are not objects. Even from the pre-colonial period to now women still face gender inequality as statistics show’ the gender pay is 18% in favor of men.

In contrast, a feminist sociologist by the name of Marianne Weber published the book ‘Authority and autonomy in Marriage’ (1950). This publication focused on the social location of women in Germany’s patriarchal society, she believed capitalism and modernity opened up opportunities for women that went beyond domestic duties. She acknowledged that marriage can restrict the lives of women but believed that this new exposure to work for women could shift gender-based power dynamics within the household. From that era and now family types have changed as there are fewer nuclear families and more single-parent, mixed families, and same-sex families. A lot of values have changed as the importance of marriage has decreased and many are happy to cohabit with each other.

To conclude feminist theory of inequality challenges enlightenment representations as enlightenment representations displayed the roles of men and women as unequal and key thinkers of enlightenment also aided in how women were depicted. Feminists spoken about in the essay, criticized key thinkers that had aided this with their theories and let it be known that women can be rational human beings and are not objects. Key feminists all had points that related to men being superior and how society/opinions were fitted to match their needs.

References;

1. Garry, A. and Pearsall, M. (2010). Women, knowledge, and reality : explorations in feminist philosophy. New York ; London: Routledge.
2. Ramazanoglu, C. (2002). Feminist methodology: challenges and choices. Thousand Oaks, CA Sage Publications.
3. Ramazanoglu, C. and Holland, J. (2002). Feminist Methodology: Challenges and Choices. pp.15-30.
4. www.dictionary.com. (2019). Definition of subordination | Dictionary.com. [online] Available at: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/subordination [Accessed 20 Dec. 2019].
5. SuperSummary. (2019). SuperSummary. [online] Available at: http://www.supersummary.com/the-sexual-contract/summary/ [Accessed 25 Nov. 2019].
6. Lloyd, G. (2016). Man of reason : male and female in Western philosophy. Routledge.
7. Wollstonecraft, M. (1792). Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman. S.L.: Verso.
8. Apetrei, S. (2014). Women, feminism, and religion in early Enlightenment England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
9. Rousseau, J.-J. (1987). Basic political writings : Discourse on the sciences and the arts ; Discourse on the origin of inequality ; Discourse on political economy ; On the social contract. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub. Co.