Early modern women’s intellectual achievement required noble birth or courtesan status

Evidence

But in reality such possibilities are very unequal; in the sixteenth century, women are still poorly educated. Anne of Brittany summons many women to the court, where previously only men had been seen; she strives to form a retinue of girls of honor: but she is more interested in their upbringing than in their culture. Among women who a little later distinguish themselves by their minds, intellectual influence, and writings, most are noblewomen: the duchess of Retz, Mme de Lignerolles, the Duchess of Rohan and her daughter Anne; the most famous were princesses: Queen Margot and Margaret of Navarre. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 228

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Virginia Woolf’s ‘A Room of One’s Own’ claim about women writers needing privilege, and to the structural barriers theme. — connects to: Early women scientists acted through egalitarian religious sects and domestic-role constriction — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 1017; The Cult of True Womanhood redeployed subordinating metaphors to justify women’s education — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 704
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Early women scientists acted through egalitarian religious sects and domestic-role constriction — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 1017; The Cult of True Womanhood redeployed subordinating metaphors to justify women’s education — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 704

Broader Connections

• The Cult of True Womanhood redeployed subordinating metaphors to justify women’s education #complicates (0.78) — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 704