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Gender Roles In The Enlightenment

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The Enlightenment brings upon new ideas from “[groups] of writers and scholars who [believe] that human begins could apply to a critical and reasoning spirit to every problem they [encounter] in the world…scrutinizing everything from absolutism…to the traditional role of women in society” (Hunt et al, 514). A major turn of events in the Enlightenment arose specifically on the viewpoints of women and their role in society. Major debates sparked and it is the first time that women are able to express their views. Major contributors for the voice of feminism include Mary Astell and Mary Wollstonecraft, both supporters for female education. What came with the views of female empowerment came the views of those who saw females as merely caregivers to the male population. One person in particular who is a strong believer in this idealistic was Jean Jacques Rousseau. His “radical stance on nature and the establishment of the civil state was viewed as dangerous by many philosophes” (Rogers,84). The Enlightenment allowed scholars and writers to put forth their ideas and pave the way for different outlooks on societies standards especially when it came to women’s gender roles. The ideas of gender roles varied in terms of how women should be represented in society and how they should contribute and participate in civil duties; in which some scholars see women as non-essential assets in the society where some see women having the potential to help society gain momentum in the

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