How did Enlightenment thinkers view the role of women?

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. Therefore, the women in the Enlightenment only represented a small class of society and not the entire female sex.

What Enlightenment thinkers influenced women’s rights?

Mary Wollstonecraft
Woman’s Voice at the Age of Enlightenment. Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) was an English writer, philosopher, and advocate of women’s rights.

What did Enlightenment thinkers believe would help improve society?

Enlightenment thinkers wanted to improve human conditions on earth rather than concern themselves with religion and the afterlife. These thinkers valued reason, science, religious tolerance, and what they called “natural rights”—life, liberty, and property.

How did the Enlightenment influence feminism?

Influence of the Enlightenment The feminist voices of the Renaissance never coalesced into a coherent philosophy or movement. This happened only with the Enlightenment, when women began to demand that the new reformist rhetoric about liberty, equality, and natural rights be applied to both sexes.

Who are some important people in 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.

What was the role of women before the Enlightenment?

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.

What did Robert Wollstonecraft think about women in the Enlightenment?

Wollstonecraft believed that educated women could strengthen society and could intellectually be equivalent to their husband in society. Wollstonecraft still believed that women should maintain traditional roles as mothers and wives in society.

What did the Enlightenment bring to the west?

The Enlightenment brought political modernization to the west, in terms of focusing on democratic values and institutions and the creation of modern, liberal democracies. Enlightenment thinkers sought to curtail the political power of organized religion, and thereby prevent another age of intolerant religious war.