Eighteenth Century Feminist Mind

by Alice Browne, Alice Browne

The eighteenth century was, in many ways, a century of positive development and change for all women. Education improved and the state of marriage moved toward greater equality and companionship. Ideas which had hitherto been regarded as controversially feminist began to be absorbed into more mainstream attitudes towards women's education and equality. As a result, feminist arguments also shifted, becoming less controversial and more a part of the newly accepted social and domestic ideals.

Alice Browne has produced a fascinating study of the period, full of interesting and important historical detail. Combining astute social history with methods of traditional intellectual history, she examines a wide range of texts from the late seventeenth through the early nineteenth century. Not only does she discuss the important works of key eighteenth century feminists such as Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Astell, she guides the reader through the development of feminist consciousness and polemic in the period, setting letters and novels, as well as philosophical, religious, and political writing in the contexts of cultural history and social practices.

Exposing for the first time the full extent of feminist influence on the lives and roles of women throughout the century, the book traces the development of eighteenth century feminist thinking and relates it to contemporary non-feminist writing about women.

248 pages, Hardcover

Published September 1, 1987