Political and sexual freedom of women in the British enlightenment

Abstract

The aim is to analyze the sexual and political freedom of women in the British Enlightenment through an investigation of the writings of Bernard Mandeville and Delarivier Manley. The first is presented as a thinker who differs profoundly from most of the philosophers of the republic of letters, in terms of the analyses and observations generally attributed to the female sex, since he recognizes the inequality between the sexes as artificial. The second, also starting from a consideration of artificial inequalities, provides a key to understanding the power dynamics that exist between the sexes and the different consequences of such dynamics for reputation. The aim of this research is not only to show how women were subordinated in the Age of Enlightenment, but also to explain how this dynamic was maintained in such a refined era.