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A Reading of Molière
A Reading of Molière was painted by Jean Francois de Troy in 1728 depicts a salon during the early Enlightenment. Bourgeois women contributed to the Enlightenment by hosting salons. Salons were important in the Enlightenment, because they allowed intellectuals to discuss liberal ideas away from the scrutiny of the state. The hosting of Salons allowed women to become more educated, since they were not allowed to study at academies. -
The Declaration of Rights of Women and of the Female Citizen
Olympe de Gouges published The Declaration of Rights of Women and of the Female Citizen in 1791 as a response to the hypocrisy of The Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789. She pointed out it was wrong for supposedly universal principles to exclude women from equal rights on the basis of gender. This contribution was seen as a counter-revolutionary act and she was guillotined. The Napoleonic code intensified the sexist aspects of the revolution. -
The Subjection of Women, John Stuart Mill
Published in 1869, The Subjection of Women was written by John Stuart Mill. In this essay, he argued that separate spheres for men and women was no longer feasible in nineteenth-century England and women would prove they were equal if they were given the opportunity to access education and participate in public life. However, his view was not typical at the time and dominant social norms deemed anything outside of female domesticity as immoral. -
German Propaganda for Ideal Womanhood
This is an image of Nazi Propaganda on the cover of a Nazi magazine on race, Neues Volk, roughly translated to “New People” which was published in 1937. This shows that ideal place for women in Nazi Germany was in the home, producing as many children from the Aryan race as possible. Yet, as the regime entered WWII this ideal broke down, because women were needed in the manufacturing sector due to the conditions of total war.