The role of women in the Enlightenment is debated. It is acknowledged that women during this era were not considered of equal status to men, and much of their work and effort were suppressed. Even so, salons, coffeehouses, debating societies, academic competitions and print all became avenues for women to socialize, learn and discuss enlightenment ideas. For many women, these avenues furthered their roles in society and created stepping stones for future progress.
The Enlightenment came to advance ideals of liberty, progress, and tolerance. For those women who were able to discuss and advance new ideals, discourse on religion, political and social equality, and sexuality became prominent topics in the salons, debating societies, and in print. While women in England and France gained arguably more freedom than their counterparts in other countries, the role of women in the Enlightenment was typically reserved for those of middle and also the upper-class families, were then allowed and able to access money to join societies and the education to participate in debate. Therefore, the women in the Enlightenment only represented a small class of society and not the entire female sex.
Significant people and publications
The role of women in society became a topic of discussion during the Enlightenment. Influential philosophers and thinkers such as John Locke, David Hume, Adam Smith, Nicolas de Condorcet, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau debated matters of gender equality. Prior to the Enlightenment, women were not considered of equal status to men in Western society. For example, Rousseau believed that women were subordinate to men and women should obey men. Challenging the popular inequality, Locke believed that the notion that men are superior to women was created by man. Condorcet also challenged the existing gender inequality by advocating for female political equality. Authors cited Queen Elizabeth, Empress Catherine of Russia, and Queen Maria Theresa of Austria as powerful women who were capable of intellect. In recent years the relationship between religion and Enlightenment, e.g. in the Catholic Enlightenment, in the works and lives of women writers has come to the attention of historians.
Prolific Enlightenment women philosophers and historians included Mary Wollstonecraft, Olympe de Gouges, Catherine Macaulay, Mary Astell, Mary Chudleigh, and Louise d’Épinay. Macaulay's influential The Letters on Education (1790) advocated for the education of women. Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) used similar arguments, stating that women ought to have education commensurate with their position in society. Women's access to education gave rise to the potential to hasten the progress of society. De Gouges published the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen (1791) as a testament to the political inequality of women and to challenge male authority in society.
Salons
Salons were a forum in which elite, well-educated women could continue their learning in a place of civil conversation, while governing the political discourse and a place where people of all social orders could interact.
In the 18th century, under the guidance of Madame Geoffrin, Mademoiselle de Lespinasse, and Madame Necker, the salon was transformed from a venue of leisure into a place of enlightenment. In the salon, there was no formal class or education barrier to prevent attendees from participating in open discussion. Throughout the 18th century the salon served as a matrix for Enlightenment ideals. Women were important in this capacity because they took on the role of salonnieres.
Salons of France were assembled by a small number of elite women who were concerned with education and promoting philosophies of the Enlightenment. Salons were hosted in a private home or a hotel dining room. There was a meal, and discourse took place afterwards. During the meal, the focus would be on the discourse between patrons rather than the dining.
The salons had a hierarchical social structure where social ranks were upheld but under different rules of conversation designed to limit misunderstandings and conflict. Participants were often people from different societal ranks, allowing the commoners to interact with people with a higher status. Many people used fashionable opinions to move up social ladders.
Within the hierarchy of the salons, women assumed a role of governance. Initially an institution of recreation, salons became an active institution of Enlightenment. Suzanne Necker, wife to Louis XVI's financial minister, provides an example of how the salons' topics may have had a bearing on official government policy.