Feminine Characteristics and Men of The Enlightenment

Through my research I have found that men of the Enlightenment period were afraid of the possibility of women becoming the dominant gender. The Enlightenment called for a change in society called the “civilized personality,” based upon characteristics that were deemed feminine. This transformation of men taking on feminine-like characteristics left men feeling vulnerable to becoming the weaker sex. Their reaction to these ideas in part added to the rejection of Wollstonecraft’s call for equality between the sexes. After her death, the men who felt threatened by her words had the power to ruin her reputation for the following generations.

             I found this part of my research interesting because I don’t have a lot of background on the Enlightenment, and I was unaware of the movement toward feminine characteristics that philosophers wanted. The characteristics in question, peaceability, sensibility, sympathy, and sociability, don’t seem strictly feminine to me, but when the man is meant to be viewed as the strong leader of the household, any compassion for another person’s feelings would seem weak. The patriarchy was only concerned with how men could be better, yet they weren’t willing to change for the improvement of society. Adding this to my research about Wollstonecraft and Barbauld, I would question how men would have reacted if a man had written their works and asked for equality for both sexes? If men didn’t want to change their behavior to better society, then they obviously wouldn’t want to help women change their behavior to better society.