DIRECTIONS FOR TAKING NOTES

Write everything

that is in red in

your notes. You

can copy it

exactly or write

it in your own

words.

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.

Click icon to add picture

"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.”

Click icon to add picture

* 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.