Women During The Enlightenment Essay

During the enlightenment era during the 18th century throughout Europe, genders were faced with oppression. Women definitely had more limitations and restrictions than men. Women had a lot on them, they were expected to act a certain way, do certain things, and they were not allowed to be part of some things that men were apart of. During that time period women had duties to attend to, women’s typical duties were cooking, cleaning, and tending to the the children. On the other hand men, had freedom something that women did not quite have.
Women faced oppression in several ways during the enlightenment era in “France”. Women were confined to traditional gender “roles”, which are societal norms which dictate what behaviors are right and accepted by a gender. During the enlightenment era which had The traditional gender roles included women being expected to be submissive to their fathers at first and then their husbands later on when and if they ever got married. Over
“Salons” were run by philosophers and were important during the enlightenment era, especially in France. Philosophers started to come on up with ideas based on logic and reason rather than religion. Some ideas that were developing were rationality, individualism, and liberalism. Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote several times about individualism which is “the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that emphasizes the moral worth of the individual” but yet continued to separate women from men. Coffeehouses were also gatherings that were held by women. At the coffeehouses there would scholarly debates between whoever joined in on it while having a cup of coffee. Coffeehouses were also known as ‘penny universities”. Women would serve the coffee and own the coffeehouses but they were not encouraged to join in on the