Gender representations during the enlightenment

What was the role played, and impact of, female authors and / or representation of women in the literature of this period?

Enlightenment thought massively influenced eighteenth and nineteenth century women’s literature. Although enlightenment philosophers made claims for universalism, many had difficulty in finding a place for subordinate groups: lower social classes, non-whites, and particularly women. The latter and the role that they played during this period of enlightenment, will be the central focus of this essay. Enlightenment thinkers (whom were predominantly male) made new attempts to present social differences between male and females as natural. Such ‘enlightened’ male thinkers as Rousseau and Kant, asserted that although women, as human beings, had rights, because of their alleged irrationality and lack of autonomy, they were to adhere to the fact that their correct sphere was a private one as opposed to a public one. Such concepts provoked outrage amongst women su...