The issue of equality between men and women in Marie de Gournay

• Grant number: 19/22352-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: January 01, 2020
• End date: December 31, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Maria das Graças de Souza
• Grantee: Clêmie Ferreira Blaud
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 18/19880-4 - Power, conflict and freedom: Spinoza and the ways of Modern and Contemporary Political Philosophy about democracy, AP.TEM
• Associated scholarship(s): 21/13944-3 - About Marie de Gournay and the idea of equality between the sexes, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

This research project investigates the work of Marie Le Jars de Gournay with regard to the problem of gender equality, which is the central theme in the texts "Egalité des hommes et des femmes" (1622) and "Grief des dames" (1626), and appears in some decisive passages of "Le proumenoir de Monseigneur Montaigne" (1594) and "Apologie pour celle qui escrit" (1626). In the seventeenth century, the idea of gender equality, or even the superiority of women, takes on new shape; in practice, the woman remains under the tutelage of men, admitting concessions as in the case of the new class of "préciouses" or in the case of nuns who are allowed to celebrate the sacrament of baptism. Gournay refuses the concessions made here and there defending a strong thesis, in which equality between men and women reaches the moral, social, political and religious dimensions as a regulating principle. For this purpose, the Gournay's stratagem is to employ the skeptical doubt, the argument of authority, and the rhetorical genres, taking into account the evidence of equality not observed in laws and customs. The hypothesis to be examined in this research is divided into two parts: i) Gournay articulates a change in approach to the question of women, proposing that the idea of male guardianship in "benefit of the end" gives way to the idea of "equality as a regulating principle"; ii) Gournay's thought produces a mark in the course between Renaissance Philosophy and Modern Philosophy. It is about recognizing Marie de Gournay's place as a philosopher of the birth of modernity, as well as contributing to contemporary feminist debates in the light of the history of Philosophy, in which women's thinking has its proper place. (AU)