The woman question

In historiography, querelle des femmes ("dispute of women"), indicates an early-modern debate on the nature of women. This literary genre developed in Italian and French early humanist circles and was led by numerous women scholars, who wrote in Latin and vernacular to counter dominant misogynistic literature.

While the French phrase querelle des femmes deals specifically with the late medieval and Renaissance periods, the phrase woman question came to indicate feminist campaigns for social change after the 1700s, culminating in the later 19th century, with women's struggle to gain more recognition and relevance in modern industrialized societies. Issues of women's suffrage, reproductive rights, bodily autonomy, property rights, legal rights, medical rights, and marriage increasingly concerned public opinion in newspapers, political rallies and manifestos, conferences, pamphlets, and intellectual discussion. While women were leading the debate over a change in the roles played by women in the society, they initially represented a minority voice. Issues of marriage and sexual freedom often divided female public opinion.

Context

The querelle des femmes or "dispute of women" originally referred to a literary genre and broad debate, that originated in humanistic and aristocratic circles in the Italian peninsula and France during the early modern period, regarding the nature of women, their capabilities, and whether they should be permitted to study, write, or govern in the same manner as men. Both in the scholarly and popular sphere, authors criticized and praised women's natures, arguing for or against their capacity to be educated in the same manner as men. As classical Aristotelianism held that women are incapable of reason, many argued that women's nature prevented them from higher learning. As the debate developed, some agreed that men were not naturally more intelligent than women – but argued that the female nature also prevented them from taking higher learning seriously. While this debate was deeply meaningful and personal to some of the authors who wrote in support of or against women, participation in the querelle des femmes was also viewed as an intellectual exercise. Augustine in particular understood women as having souls that were 'naturally more seductive', and emphasized their 'powerful inborn potential to corrupt'.

Religious justifications were not the only sources of information regarding woman's nature. As Renaissance humanism developed, there was great interest in returning to classical Greek and Roman philosophy. Classical philosophy held that women were inferior to men at a physical level, and this physical inferiority made them intellectually inferior as well.

1500s

Baldassare Castiglione contributed to the querelle in The Courtier in 1527, which voiced some support for the 'gentle' side of the debate, which favored women. Agrippa argued for the nobility of women and thought women were created better than men. He argued that in the first place, women being made better than man, received the better name. Man was called Adam, which means Earth; woman Eva, which is by interpretation Life. Man was created from the dust of the earth, while woman was made from something far purer. Agrippa's metaphysical argument was that creation itself is a circle that began when God created light and ended when he created woman. Therefore, women and light occupy adjacent points on the circle of creation and must have similar properties of purity.

1600s to 1700s

Moderata Fonte's The Worth of Women was published in 1600, with a preface from her daughter Cecilia and her son Pietro. According to her daughter, Moderata Fonte (Modesta di Pozzo di Zorzi) finished writing the dialog in 1592, before dying in childbirth. The dialog collected poetry and dialogues which proclaimed the value of women, arguing that their intelligence and capability to rule cannot be recognized if they are not educated.

Victorian era

The term querelle des femmes was used in England in the Victorian era, stimulated, for example, by the Reform Act 1832 and the Reform Act 1867. The Industrial Revolution brought hundreds of thousands of lower-class women into factory jobs, presenting a challenge to traditional ideas of a woman's place.

A prime issue of contention was whether what was referred to as women's "private virtue" could be transported into the public arena; opponents of women's suffrage claimed that bringing women into public would dethrone them, and sully their feminine virtue.

Areas of discussion

The woman question was raised in many different social areas. For example, in the second half of the 19th century, in the context of religion, extensive discussion within the United States took place on the participation of women in church. In the Methodist Episcopal Church, the woman question was the most pressing issue in the 1896 conference.

The woman question

Context

1500s

1600s to 1700s

Victorian era

Areas of discussion

See also

References

Further reading