Seventeenth-century Cartesian feminism held women’s inferiority was custom, not nature

Evidence

The period’s most determined feminist is Poulain de la Barre who in 1673 publishes a Cartesian-inspired work, De l’égalité des deux sexes (The Equality of the Two Sexes). He thinks that since men are stronger, they favor their sex and women accept this dependence out of custom. They never had their chances: in either freedom or education. Thus they cannot be judged by what they did in the past. Nothing indicates their inferiority to men. Anatomy reveals differences, but none of them constitutes a privilege for the male. And Poulain de la Barre concludes with a demand for a solid education for women. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 236

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the early formulation of the equality-of-the-sexes argument grounded in Cartesian mind-body dualism, a direct ancestor of Beauvoir’s own framework.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: why did Cartesian epistemology specifically support an equality argument a century and a half before Wollstonecraft? Relationship between rationalist epistemology and early feminism.
• XREF: connects to: Woman is a historical situation, not an immutable essence — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 675; Femininity is an artificial, inculcated product rather than a natural instinct — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1037; Biology does not condemn women to inferiority; meaning applied to differences does — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1978 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Women’s alleged faults arise from their enclosed condition, not innate nature #corroborates (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1745
• Biology does not condemn women to inferiority; meaning applied to differences does #corroborates (0.82) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1978
• Woman is a historical situation, not an immutable essence #qualifies (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 675
• Femininity is an artificial, inculcated product rather than a natural instinct #expands (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1037