The purpose of this discussion is to
- Engage in substantive interaction with other students.
- Integrate information learned from the Unit 5 class materials into a discussion post on Germaine de Stal.
To achieve the objective(s)
- Watch the and take notes.
- Read and take notes on the .
Requirements for your initial post:
- Answer the following prompt: Based on the Unit 5 class materials, was Germaine de Stal:
-
- A conformer: Did she choose or was she pressured by others into conforming to accepted gender norms? Why and how did she conform?
- A rebel: Did she choose to reject accepted gender norms? Why and how did she rebel?
- An adapter: Was she not much of a conformer or rebel, but shifted gender roles based on changing societal circumstances? Why and how did she adapt?
- A thesis that is based on ONE of the above classifications (conformer, rebel, adapter).
- A thorough and clear answer to the prompt.
- A response based only on the class materials. If you use other materials, plagiarize, or use AI, you will receive a 0 on the assignment without an opportunity to redo it.
- A thorough and clear answer to the prompt.
- Citations of class materials at the bottom of your post. If you cite a primary source document, you must also cite either the book excerpt or a lecture video to show where you found the specific historical facts in your argument. Use the format explained at 0.6 in Unit 0 in the modules for your citation.
- Analysis of specific historical facts from class materials on the accepted gender roles of Germaine de Stal society in the early during the Enlightenment and the French Revolution..
- Analysis of specific historical facts from class materials on the ways Germaine de Stal accepted, rejected, or adapted to the gender roles of Germaine de Stal society during the Enlightenment and the French Revolution.
primary source documents
Introduction:
Mary Wollstonecraft from England was one of the rare female Enlightened philosophers. She wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1798 in response to Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Prigord’s 1791 report to the French National Assembly which stated that women should only receive a domestic education. You will find an excerpt from that book below.
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 1798:
To M. Talleyrand-Prigord . . .
Contending for the rights of women, my main argument is built on this simple principle, that if she be not prepared by education to become the companion of man, she will stop the progress of knowledge, for truth must be common to all, or it will be inefficacious with respect to its influence on general practice. And how can woman be expected to co-operate, unless she know why she ought to be virtuous? Unless freedom strengthen her reason till she comprehend her duty, and see in what manner it is connected with her real good? If children are to be educated to understand the true principle of patriotism, their mother must be a patriot; and the love of mankind, from which an orderly train of virtues spring, can only be produced by considering the moral and civil interest of mankind; but the education and situation of woman, at present, shuts her out from such investigations. . . .
Consider, . . . whether, when men contend for their freedom, and to be allowed to judge for themselves, respecting their own happiness, it be not inconsistent and unjust to subjugate women, even though you firmly believe that you are acting in the manner best calculated to promote their happiness? Who made man the exclusive judge, if woman partake with him the gift of reason?
In this style, argue tyrants of every denomination from the weak king to the weak father of a family; they are all eager to crush reason; . . . Do you not act a similar part, when you FORCE all women, by denying them civil and political rights, to remain immured in their families groping in the dark? . . . the more understanding women acquire, the more they will be attached to their duty, comprehending it, for unless they comprehend it, unless their morals be fixed on the same immutable principles as those of man, no authority can make them discharge it in a virtuous manner. They may be convenient slaves, but slavery will have its constant effect, degrading the master and the abject dependent. . . .
Besides, whilst they are only made to acquire personal accomplishments, men will seek for pleasure in variety, and faithless husbands will make faithless wives; . . . now that more equitable laws are forming your citizens, marriage may become more sacred; . . .
The father of a family will not then weaken his constitution and debase his sentiments, by visiting the harlot, nor forget, in obeying the call of appetite, the purpose for which it was implanted; and the mother will not neglect her children to practice the arts of coquetry, when sense and modesty secure her the friendship of her husband.
But, till men become attentive to the duty of a father, it is vain to expect women to spend that time in their nursery which they, wise in their generation, choose to spend at their glass; for this exertion of cunning is only an instinct of nature to enable them to obtain indirectly a little of that power of which they are unjustly denied a share; for, if women are not permitted to enjoy legitimate rights, they will render both men and themselves vicious, to obtain illicit privileges. . . .
Introduction . . .
I have sighed when obliged to confess, that either nature has made a great difference between man and man, or that the civilization, which has hitherto taken place in the world, has been very partial. . . . The conduct and manners of women, in fact, evidently prove, that their minds are not in a healthy state; for, like the flowers that are planted in too rich a soil, strength and usefulness are sacrificed to beauty; and the flaunting leaves, after having pleased a fastidious eye, fade, disregarded on the stalk, long before the season when they ought to have arrived at maturity. One cause of this barren blooming I attribute to a false system of education, gathered from the books written on this subject by men, who, considering females rather as women than human creatures, have been more anxious to make them alluring mistresses than rational wives; and the understanding of the sex has been so bubbled by this specious homage, that the civilized women of the present century, with a few exceptions, are only anxious to inspire love, when they ought to cherish a nobler ambition, and by their abilities and virtues exact respect. . . .
In the government of the physical world, it is observable that the female, in general, is inferior to the male. The male pursues, the female yields this is the law of nature; and it does not appear to be suspended or abrogated in favour of woman. This physical superiority cannot be denied and it is a noble prerogative! But not content with this natural pre-eminence, men endeavour to sink us still lower, merely to render us alluring objects for a moment; and women, intoxicated by the adoration which men, under the influence of their senses, pay them, do not seek to obtain a durable interest in their hearts, or to become the friends of the fellow creatures who find amusement in their society. . . .
My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their FASCINATING graces, and viewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone. I earnestly wish to point out in what true dignity and human happiness consists I wish to persuade women to endeavor to acquire strength, both of mind and body, and to convince them, that the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are almost synonymous with epithets of weakness, and that those beings who are only the objects of pity and that kind of love, which has been termed its sister, will soon become objects of contempt. . . .
I wish to show that elegance is inferior to virtue, that the first object of laudable ambition is to obtain a character as a human being, regardless of the distinction of sex; and that secondary views should be brought to this simple touchstone. . . .
The education of women has, of late, been more attended to than formerly; yet they are still reckoned a frivolous sex, . . . It is acknowledged that they spend many of the first years of their lives in acquiring a smattering of accomplishments: meanwhile, strength of body and mind are sacrificed to libertine notions of beauty, to the desire of establishing themselves, the only way women can rise in the world by marriage. And this desire making mere animals of them, when they marry, they act as such children may be expected to act . . . Surely these weak beings are only fit for the seraglio! Can they govern a family, or take care of the poor babes whom they bring into the world?
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