Let's Educate Sofía. The Wollstonecraft-Rousseau Controversy and the Rise of Feminist Political Philosophy

Main Article Content

María Ávila Bravo-Villasante, Dra.

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyse Mary Wollstonecraft's defence of egalitarian education against Rousseau's proposal of sexual politics. To account for this polemic, we contextualise the debate within the Enlightenment, specifically in the emergence of feminist theory. In the first part of the article, we will analyse the importance of the universalising abstractions that emerged in the Enlightenment in the erosion of the hierarchies that legitimised the inferiority of women in relation to men. The pedagogy proposed by Rousseau, despite being framed within the framework of Enlightenment thought, posed serious difficulties for the claims of
equality of the emerging feminist thought. Mary Wollstonecraft, in a veritable exercise in the philosophy of suspicion, will give an account of the ploy used by Rousseau to legitimise the inferiority of women and thus justify Sophia's unequal education.

Article Details

How to Cite
Ávila Bravo-Villasante, M. (2022). Let’s Educate Sofía. The Wollstonecraft-Rousseau Controversy and the Rise of Feminist Political Philosophy. Revista Stultifera, 5(1), 35–67. https://doi.org/10.4206/rev.stultifera.2022.v5n1-03
Section
Artículos de Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales
Author Biography

María Ávila Bravo-Villasante, Dra., Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, España.

Doctora en Estudios Interdisciplinares de Género por la Universidad Rey Juan Carlos y se desempeña como profesora en la Universidad Rey Juan Carlos.