The Bluestocking Circle: Women, Friendship, and the Life of the Mind in Eighteenth-Century England

Schofield, Mary Anne; Myers, Sylvia Harcstark; Williamson, Marilyn L.; Messenger, Ann; Brophy, Elizabeth Berger; Green, Katherine Sobba

doi:10.2307/463794

Cited by 36 publications

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Women and Enlightenment in Eighteenth-Century Britain

O'Brien

2009

207

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self-love, reason and social benevolence 2 From savage to Scotswoman: the history of femininity 3 Roman, Gothic and medieval women: the historicisation of womanhood, 1750-c.1804 4 Catharine Macaulay's histories of England: liberty, civilisation and the female historian 5 Good manners and partial civilisation in the writings of Mary Wollstonecraft 6 The history women and the population men, 1760-1830 Notes Bibliography Index vii Introduction: the progress of society Let me observe to you, that the position of women in society, is somewhat different from what it was a hundred years ago, or as it was sixty, or I will say thirty years since. Women are now so highly cultivated, and political subjects are at present of so much importance, of such high interest, to all human beings who live together in society, you can hardly expect, Helen, that you, as a rational being, can go through the world as it now is, without forming any opinions on points of public importance. You cannot, I conceive, satisfy yourself with the common namby-pamby, little missy phrase, 'ladies have nothing to do with politics'.. . Female influence must, will, and ought to exist on political subjects as on all others; but this influence should always be domestic, not public-the customs of society have so ruled it.

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