Early modern women philosophers and politics: Accommodating sphere restrictions

Abstract

In his Politics, Aristotle decreed that human beings needed to take part in politics to flourish, but that women, despite being human, needed to stay at home and away from politics. This paper offers an overview of how early modern women philosophers worked to makes their lives more political despite being constricted to the domestic sphere. Lucrezia Marinella argued that the home was like a small city, requiring quasi political skill to run, Cavendish believed that politics should cover the home and its inhabitants, not just the so‐called ‘public domain’. Mary Astell, less optimistic, thought that women could compensate for the urge to be political by retreating into a well‐educated mind.