The Emerging Female Citizen

by Smith, Theresa Ann

• ISBN13: 9780520245839
• ISBN10: 0520245830
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-05-01
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

Eighteenth-century Spanish women were not idle bystanders during one of Europe's most dynamic eras. As Theresa Ann Smith skillfully demonstrates in this lively and absorbing book, Spanish intellectuals, calling for Spain to modernize its political, social, and economic institutions, brought the question of women's place to the forefront, as did women themselves. In explaining how both discourse and women's actions worked together to define women's roles in the nation, "The Emerging Female Citizen" not only illustrates the rising visibility of women, but also reveals the complex processes that led to women's relatively swift exit from most public institutions in the early 1800s. As artists, writers, and reformers, Spanish women took up pens, joined academies and economic societies, formed" tertulias"--similar to French salons--and became active in the burgeoning public discourse of Enlightenment. In analyzing the meaning of women's presence in diverse centers of Enlightenment, Smith offers a new interpretation of the dynamics among political discourse, social action, and gender ideologies.

Author Biography

Theresa Ann Smith is the chair of the Social Studies Department at the Oakwood School in North Hollywood, California.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	1	(16)
PART I. DEVELOPING IDEOLOGIES OF CITIZENSHIP
1. The Woman Question	17	(23)
2. Admitted Equals: Art and Letters	40	(34)
3. On Equal Terms? Membership in the Economic Society	74	(37)
PART II. ENACTING CITIZENSHIP
4. Negotiating a Female Public: Writers and Reformers	111	(37)
5. Public Works: Female Citizens as Mothers and Workers	148	(30)
6. Between Reason and Passion: Citizenship in Translation	178	(19)
Conclusion	197	(4)
Notes	201	(56)
Selected Bibliography	257	(42)
Index	299