Gendered lights of reason

Beginning with the fundamental text De l’égalité des deux sexes by François Poullain de la La Barre, the female universe became the object of increasing and intense scrutiny and debate. Intellectuals, philosophers and doctors reacted stubbornly to progressive and excessively positive concepts regarding women’s characteristics and potential, and instead began to re-propose obsolete atavistic theories based on the most sinister misogyny. They doubled down on the classic ideologies, with their cruel and offensive traits. However, at the same time, apparently new and very unusual phenomena began to emerge. Although women writers had already been present in previous centuries, albeit few and far between, they now had greater assertiveness and conviction. They began to publish and disseminate their works in completely original ways, adopting new methods, register and forms. They focused on Otherness, specifically on the gender differences that still existed in European society, politics, education, and the world of work. he cultural space that women wanted to conquer seemed restricted for the time, and in some cases, it differed both in terms of geographical affiliation and boundaries delimited by class, religious faith and social standing. Unvarying, however, appeared the desire to be present, to count, to be heard. This desire for protagonism was sometimes expressed in a manner that today seems naïve and amateurish. Nonetheless, it represented the germination of a movement that would ultimately be able to find ways and tools for wresting the dignity and legitimacy that had been denied for too long. The universal light of reason, equal for men and women alike, would not be slow to yield fruit .