A History of Women's Political Thought in Europe, 1400–1700

by Jacqueline Broad , Karen Green

• ISBN13: 9780521888172
• ISBN10: 0521888174
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-02-02
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This ground-breaking book surveys the history of women's political thought in Europe from the late medieval period to the early modern era. The authors examine women's ideas about topics such as the basis of political authority, the best form of political organisation, justifications of obedience and resistance, and concepts of liberty, toleration, sociability, equality, and self-preservation. Women's ideas concerning relations between the sexes are discussed in tandem with their broader political outlooks; and the authors demonstrate that the development of a distinctively sexual politics is reflected in women's critiques of marriage, the double standard, and women's exclusion from government. Women writers are also shown to be indebted to the ancient idea of political virtue, and to be acutely aware of being part of a long tradition of female political commentary. This work will be of tremendous interest to political philosophers, historians of ideas, and feminist scholars alike.

Author Biography

Jacqueline Broad is an honorary research associate in the School of Philosophy and Bioethics at Monash University.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. viii
Introduction	p. 1
Christine de Pizan	p. 10
Women of the Italian Renaissance	p. 38
From Anne de Beaujeu to Marguerite de Navarre	p. 60
Queen Elizabeth I of England	p. 90
From the Reformation to Marie le Jars de Gournay	p. 110
Women of the English civil war era	p. 140
Quaker women	p. 162
The Fronde and Madeleine de Scudery	p. 180
Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle	p. 199
Women of the Glorious Revolution	p. 225
Women of late seventeenth-century France	p. 247
Mary Astell	p. 265
Conclusion	p. 288
Bibliography	p. 293
Index	p. 327
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