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LADIES OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT

Abigail Adams, Madame Geoffrin, Olympe de Gouges and Mary

Wollstonecraft:

What They Had to Say about Government and Society

The women of the 1600s and 1700s did not share the same rights as men. Still, the ideas of the Enlightenment encouraged women to push the boundaries of what was acceptable for women. Some hosted salons, while others began actively seeking equality with men. Here are a few of the Ladies of the Enlightenment…

ABIGAIL ADAMS

* felt insecure because of her own lack of education.

* spoke out for the right of women to get an education

* Supported the Patriots during the American Revolution • married to John Adams, the second president• Mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth president

“If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment [start] a Rebellion.” “[the ladies] will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice.”

MADAME GEOFFRIN • One of the most

famous salonnieres

• Hosted two salons a week

• Supported the Encyclopedists, a group of men who created the first encyclopedia

Madame Geoffrin’s motto was “Donner et pardonner” which means “to give and be forgiven.”

“Do not allow grass to grow on the road of friendship.”

OLYMPE DE GOUGES

• became an important writer and social reformer.

• passionate about equal rights for women.

• believed that women should be able to vote, hold office, own property, and even serve in the military.

• published the Declaration of the Rights of Women and the Female Citizen, her answer to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

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"Woman has the right to mount the scaffold; she must equally have the right to mount the rostrum.”

“Woman is born free and lives equal to man in her rights. Social distinctions can be based only on the common utility.”

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* an English writer who was an early leader in the fight for women’s rights.• believed that

education was the best way for women to achieve equality and freedom.

• Her ideas helped to inspire other women to fight for equality with men.

MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

I do not wish [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.

Women are systematically degraded by receiving the trivial attentions which men think it manly to pay to the sex, when, in fact, men are insultingly supporting their own superiority.

Let women share the rights and she will emulate the virtues of men, for she must grow more perfect when emancipated.