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Equality of the Two Sexes

Francois Poullain de la Barre (1673)

From Equality of the Two Sexes, Francois Poullain de la Barre (1673), translated by A. Daniel Frankforter and Paul J. Morman [Lewiston, UK: Edwin Mellen Press, 1989] pp 119-129

That women are not less fit than men for posts in society.

That is why there is no harm in women applying themselves to study like we [do]. Women, too, can make very good use of education and derive from it the two advantages that we can hope for from it: the one, to get the clear and distinct knowledge that we naturally desire [which desire is often stifled and destroyed by the confusion of [our] thoughts and by the needs and upheavals of life); and the other, to employ this knowledge [to direct] their [own] conduct and that of others in the different stations in society in which we participate. This [idea] is not in accord with the common opinion. There are many people who will readily believe that women can learn whatever is contained in the physical or natural sciences, but not that they are as fit as men for the sciences that can be called "civil" (i.e., morality, law, and politics)-and that even if women could govern themselves using the principles of the latter, they could not, for that [reason alone], govern others.

We think this because we fail to attend to the fact that the mind needs nothing (in all its actions) but discernment and precision-and that whosoever once employs these two qualities in one situation can employ them as easily and by the same process in all the rest. [The labels] "moral" or "civil" do not change the nature of our actions. Actions always remain physical, for morality is nothing but knowing how men view the deeds of their fellows with respect to the ideas they have of good or evil, vice and virtue, justice and injustice. And likewise, having once comprehended the laws of movement in physics we can apply them to all the mutations and to all the diversity that we see in nature. Also, once we know the true principles of the civil sciences, we do not have much difficulty making application of them to new incidents as they occur.

Those who are in the professions-having had more good fortune-do not always have greater intelligence than others. They need not even have more [wit] than the common [run of humankind] (although it is to be hoped that we only admit to professions those people who are most fit for them). We always act in the same way and according to the same rules in whatever state we find ourselves—except that the more elevated our posts are, the more our responsibilities and our perceptions are expanded (because there is more necessity [for us] to act). The only change that occurs in people who are placed over others is like that in a person who, being set on top of a tower, sees farther and discovers .more different objects than those who stay below. This is why, if women are as able as we [arel by themselves to conduct themselves well, they are also [fit] to govern others and to share in the professions and in the offices of civil society.

The simplest and most natural public use that we can make of the educations that we have well acquired is to pass them on to others. If women had studied in the universities with men (or in schools that we might have established especially for women) they could have taken degrees, assumed the titles of "doctor" and "master" (both in theology and medicine, [and] in one and the other [kinds] of law). And their nature, which so readily inclines them to learn, would dispose them also to teach with success. They would find methods and indirect strategies to instill their doctrine. To adjust themselves to students' capacities, they would adroitly discover the strengths] and weaknesses] of their disciples. And the facility they have in expressing themselves (which is one of the best talents of good masters) would put the finishing touch to making them admirable teachers.

The profession most closely approaching teaching is that of pastor or minister in the church, and we can show that there is no other thing than custom that keeps women from it. They have a mind like ours (capable of knowing and loving God and, thus, able to bring others to know and to love Him). Their faith is the same as ours. The Gospel and its promises are no less addressed to them. Charity includes them, too, in its duties—and if they know how to practice its deeds, could they not also publicly teach its principles? Whoever can preach by examples can also [preach] (with all the more reason) with his words. And a woman who would join [her] natural eloquence to the moral law of Jesus Christ would be as competent as [any] other person to exhort, to direct, to correct—to admit into Christian society those who are worthy of it, and to cut out those who would refuse to observe its rules after having submitted themselves to it. And if men were accustomed to see women in a pulpit, they would not be more affected by the sight than women are [to see] men [there].

We congregate in society only for the purpose of living in peace and finding in mutual assistance all the body's and the mind's necessities. We would not (without difficulty) be able to enjoy these things if there were no authority. That is to say, there must be (for this purpose) some persons having the power to make laws and to impose penalties on those who violate them. To make good use of this authority, it is necessary to know what it compels [one] [to do] and to be persuaded that those who possess it must have as their purpose in employing it only the procurement of the health and advantage of those who are their inferiors. Since women are no less capable of making this commitment than men, could men not submit themselves to women—and consent not only not to resist their orders, but even to contribute as much as they could to compelling the obedience of those men who might make difficulty for female rulers?

Thus, nothing should prevent a woman from sitting on a throne. In order to govern her people she could study their nature, interests, laws, customs, and habits, so that she might regard merit alone in the distribution of offices—that to the professions of the robe and the sword she might appoint only fair persons and to the offices of the church only enlightened, exemplary people. Is it so difficult a thing that a woman could not do it—to teach herself the strength[s] and weakness [es] of a state and of those nations that surround it, to maintain secret intelligence agencies in foreign lands to uncover their plans and disrupt their measures, to have spies and faithful emissaries in all suspect places [and] to be informed precisely about everything that happens in those places in which we would take an interest? Would the conduct of a kingdom require more care and more vigilance than women have for their families and the nuns for their convents? Subtlety would no more be lacking to them in public negotiations than it fails them in private affairs. Since piety and sweetness are natural to their sex, their rule would be less harsh than the administration of many princes has been. And during their reign[s] we might wish for what we have feared during so many others: that subjects model themselves on the example of the persons who rule them.

It is easy to conclude that if women are capable of possessing all public authority supremely, they are even more [prepared] to be mere ministers of that authority (e.g., viceroys, governors, secretaries, counsellors of state, and comptrollers of finances). As for me, I would be no more surprised to see a woman with a helmet on her head than to see her with a crown—presiding over a counsel of war as over a counsel of state, exercising soldiers herself, arranging an army in battle formation, and dividing it into many corps (as she would please herself to see it done). The military art requires nothing more than the other [occupations] for which women are fit—except that it is ruder, makes more noise, and does more harm. Eyes suffice to learn all the roads of a country from a tolerably accurate map (i.e., the good and bad routes and the places best suited for surprise attacks and encampments). There are scarcely any soldiers who do not understand thoroughly that passes should be occupied before engaging their troops, [that] all enterprises should be directed utilizing the dependable advice of good spies, and [that]—the better to conceal their plan—their own army should be deceived by ruses and countermarches. A woman can do this and invent stratagems to surprise the enemy (e.g., to put the wind, the dust, and the sun in [his] face; attacking him on one side to surround him on the other; to give him false alarms; to draw him into an ambush by simulated flight; to give battle and to mount first into the breach to encourage her soldiers). Persuasiveness and passion carry the day, and women do not display less ardor and resolution when honor is at stake than is needed to attack and to defend a place. What reasonable objection could be found to a woman of good sense and enlightenment presiding at the head of a court and every other assembly. There are many able people who would have less trouble learning the laws and the customs of a state than those of the games that women know so well. (It is as easy to remember these things as an entire novel). Can we not see the point of a court action as easily as the outcome of a plot in a theater piece—and as faithfully make the report on a lawsuit as the narration of a comedy? All these things are equally easy for those who apply themselves equally to them.

As there is neither an office nor a profession in society that is not included in those of which we have just spoken (nor in which there is need of more education or intelligence), it must be acknowledged that women are fit for all [jobs], Beyond the natural dispositions of the body and the ideas that we have about the functions and the duties of our professions, there is yet a certain something additional that renders [us] more or less capable of acquitting ourselves worthily: the conviction of what it is our duty to do, considerations of religion and self-interest, the emulation between [us and our] fellows, [our] desire to acquire glory, [and] to make, to maintain or to increase our fortune[s]. According as a man is more or less affected by these things, he acts very differently, and women—being no less sensitive to them than men—are with respect to the professions equal to men in everything.

We can then with assurance urge ladies to apply themselves to study without taking notice of the petty arguments of those who would try to divert them from it. Since women have minds like ours—capable of knowing truth (the only thing that can worthily occupy them), they must put themselves in position to avoid the reproach of having suppressed a talent that they could turn to account (and of having retarded the truth by their idleness and indolence). There is no other way for them to protect themselves against the error and surprise to which persons are so much exposed who learn nothing but by reading newspapers (that is to say, by [hearing] the simple testimony of others). And there is no other way, either, for them to be happy in this life while practicing virtue with understanding. Whatever interest women pursue beyond this, they will find .it in study. If their tea parties were turned into academies, the conversations that take place in them would be more profound, agreeable, and elevated. And each woman can gauge the satisfaction that she would take in conversing about the most exalted subjects from the pleasure that she sometimes feels to hear others talk about them. However light might be the subjects of conversation, these women would have the pleasure of treating them more intelligently than the ordinary person. And the delicate manners that are so characteristic of their sex—being backed up by solid arguments, they would reach even deeper.

Those women who only seek to please would find education admirably to be to their advantage, and the brilliance of the beauty of the body would be a hundred times more vivid if heightened by the beauty of the mind. And since less beautiful women are always looked on with favor when they are intelligent, the resources of a mind cultivated by education would give them a way to abundantly supply what nature or fortune had denied them. They could take part in the conversations of educated men and reign among them in two ways: they could enter into public life, [and] their husbands would have no excuse not to relinquish to them the management of their families and [no excuse not] to take their advice about everything. And if things are ever in a state where they can no longer be admitted to the professions, these women could at least understand the functions [of these posts] and decide whether we discharge them worthily. The difficulty of achieving this goal must not frighten [women]. It is not as great as we make it out to be. What causes us to believe that so much effort is needed to acquire a bit of knowledge [176] is that we force (to that end) those who aspire to learning to learn a great many things that are extremely useless to most of them. Since all education until now has consisted almost only of the possession of the history of the thoughts of those who have preceded us, very few people (men having put too much trust in custom and in the good faith of their masters) have had the good fortune to find the natural method [for acquiring knowledge]. We might work at this and show that we could train people in much less time and (much more pleasantly) than we now imagine.

References:

From Equality of the Two Sexes, Francois Poullain de la Barre (1673), translated by A. Daniel Frankforter and Paul J. Morman [Lewiston, UK: Edwin Mellen Press, 1989] pp 119-129

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