The world owes much of what exists today to the result of the Enlightenment and its intellectual and technological advancements. That epoch was a time of liberation and perspective shifts, although not everyone was able to freely join in on the new way of life. Before the Enlightenment, women were seen only in domestic settings and were expected to adhere to the societal norms. During the Enlightenment, women tried to make their voices heard and opinions known. Many well-known advocates exist, such as Abigail Adams and Olympe de Gouges; most of the women, however, were forced to remain under societal confinements that had existed for centuries prior. Women tried their hardest to bridge the gap between the two sexes and to bring equality as a forefront to Enlightenment ideas, and although successful trailblazers emerged, most of their intellectual findings remain in the background of their male counterparts because of conservative and sexist beliefs. It is no secret that the Enlightenment was geared mainly around male philosophers and their new revolutionary thoughts, but there are some eighteenth-century women that were able to us …show more content…
Women were so interested in reading and obtaining new information, which, according to Anthony J. LaVopa, a History Professor at North Carolina State University, pulled literary genres in new directions. Their devotional writings reoriented religious ideas to better suit their circumstances and needs, especially because the church was so conservative, and the Enlightenment movement was not. Their new thoughts in general on what it meant to be a woman helped shape the political concepts of rights, justice, and moral integrity. The women paved the way for future female generations to be able to think freely and openly, as well as share those thoughts freely and openly with the public and not just with those closest to