Séminaire de civilisation 2 (EAD)

 Titre:  ‘Sex and the City’. Women and Political Thought in the Anglophone World. 1600 to the present

Course Description:

In 2009, Jacqui Broad and Karen Green made the claim that “when it comes to the history of ideas in Europe from 1400-1700, women had their hands bound in many respects… But there is a remarkable number who escaped their bonds.” The course examines how women thinkers have anatomised the question of women’s subjection. From all sides of the political and religious spectrum, they questioned patriarchal institutions and norms, scrutinised gender relations, and reflected on the material conditions of women authors. Our primary focus is not so much women’s activism to defend their rights, but rather how women, and men, have theorised and challenged the mechanisms of women’s subjection and promoted gender equality.

The aim of the course is to expand the canon of political thought to include women authors, as well as broaden the notion of the political. While focusing on the British Isles and the Commonwealth, it will encompass the circulation of ideas from one geographical area to the next, and study a variety of sources, from press articles to history books, and from prefatory material to treatises. These texts engage with politics and economics, but also with broader issues pertaining to the place of women in the City: who has access to knowledge and property, who has rights, power and representation, who writes history and philosophy, how are private and public virtue articulated, and where does the duty of obedience to the patriarch stop? Key to such questionings are the notions of liberty, equality and authority within the family and society at large.

            The course will consist of lectures and critical analysis of primary and secondary sources.

●       Provide students with a basic knowledge of the history of political thought and the significant contribution of women to it

●       Enhance the way gender has been at the core of political thought

●       Place classic sources of political thought in their historical and philosophical contexts

●       Become familiarised with the major historiographical trends in political thought

●       Research and mobilise historical and conceptual material to build a well-informed and critical discourse on sources

Session 1 : épreuve écrite (2 heures)

Session 2 : épreuve écrite (2 heures)

Dans le cadre de cet EC, l’usage de l’IA pour aider à la réalisation des travaux de contrôle continu soumis à évaluation est interdit. Vous n’avez pas le droit de faire appel à une IA générative à des fins de documentation, recherche d’idées, construction, rédaction ou édition.

English C1

●       Understand complex lines of arguments and develop a critical distance to sources

●       Practise synthetic skills

●       Practise argumentative and writing skills: build a balanced and nuanced argument and present your findings in an organised manner

●       Use conceptual tools and historical knowledge to study texts in context

●       Use the methodological tools of research and bibliographical resources in the history political thought

A complete bibliography will be provided at the beginning of the semester.

Primary sources

Astell, Mary, Some Reflections upon Marriage (1689), in Political Writings, ed. P. Springborg, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Cavendish, Margaret, Political Writings, ed. S. James, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Engels, Friedrich, The Origin of the Family, the Property and the State (1884), ed. E. B. Leacock, London, Verso, 2021.

Greer, Germaine, The Female Eunuch, London, Paladin, 1960.

___ The Whole Woman, London, New York, 1999.

Hays, Mary, Female Biography or Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated women of All Ages and Country, London, Richard Philipps, 1803.

___  Victims of Prejudice, London, J. Johnson, 1799.

___ Appeal to the men of Great Britain in behalf of women (as Anonymous), London, J. Johnson and J. Bell, 1798.

Makin, Batshua, An Essay to Revive the Ancient Education of Gentlewomen, London, J.D. to be sold by Tho. Parkhurst, 1673

Macaulay, Catharine, Political Writings, ed. M. Skjönsberg, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2023.

Martineau, Harriet, Illustrations of political economy, London, Charles Fox, 1832, 9 vols.

Mill, John Stuart, Taylor, Harriet, On the Subjection of Woman (1869), London, The Floating Press, 2009.

Millar, John, Observations concerning the Distinction of Ranks in Society, Dublin, T. Ewing, 1771.

Owen, Robert, Lectures on the marriages of the priesthood of the old immoral world… with an appendix containing the marriage system of the new moral world, Leeds, J. Hobson, 1840.

Pankhurst, Emmeline, My Own Story (1918), Penguin, 2018.

Patel, Pragna, “Faith in the state? Asian women’s struggles for human rights in the U.K.” Feminist Legal Studies 16 (1), 2008, 9-36.

Roy, Arundathi, Gendered Citizenship: Historical and Conceptual Explorations, Delhi, Orient Longman, 2005.

Rowbotham, Sheila, Woman’s Consciousness, Man’s World, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1973.

Shaw, George Bernard, The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism and Capitalism, New York, Brentano’s, 1928.

Srinivasan, Amia, The Right to Sex. Feminism in the twenty-first century, London, Bloomsbury, 2018.

Taylor Mill, Harriet, The Complete Works, eds. J.E. Jacobs, P. Harms Payne, Indiana University Press, 1998.

Wheeler, Anna, Thomson, William, An Appeal of One Half the Human Race, Women, Against the Pretensions of the Other Half, Men, to Retain Them in Political, and thence in Civil and Domestic Slavery. In reply to a paragraph in Mr Mill’s celebrated “On Civil Government”, (1825), London, Virago, 1983.

Wollstonecraft, Mary, A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790) and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Woolf, Virginia, A Room of One’s Own (1928) and Three Guineas (1938), ed. M. Barrett, Harmondsworth, Penguin Classics, 2019 (1993).

[Wright Frances], Views of Society and Manners in America by an Englishwoman, New York, Bliss and White, 1821.

___ England, the Civilizer by A Woman, London, Simpkin and Marshall, Heywood, Manchester, 1848.

Secondary sources

achin, Catherine, bereni, Laure, Genre et science politique. Concepts, objets, problèmes, Paris, Presses universitaires de Sciences Po, 2013.

Bock, Gisela, Women in European History, Oxford, Blackwell, 2002.

Broad, Jacqui, Green, Karen, A History of Women’s Political Thought 1400-1700, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2014 (2009).

Cottegnies, Line, Mary Astell et le féminisme en Angleterre au XVIIe siècle. Les Fondamentaux du féminisme, Lyon, ENS Éditions, 2008.

delap, Lucy, Feminisms. A global History, Chicago, The University of Chicago University Press, 2020.

gheeraert-graffeuille, Claire, Lucy Hutchinson and the English Revolution. Gender, Genre and History Writing, Oxford University Press, 2023.

Green, Karen, The History of Women’s Political Thought 1700-1800, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2018 (2014).

Fauré, Christine (ed.), Nouvelle Encyclopédie politique et historique des femmes, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 2010.

Grundy, Isobel, Wiseman, Susan (eds.), Women Writing History. 1640-1740, Batsford, London, 1992.

Hill, Bridget, The First English Feminist: Reflections upon Marriage and other Writings by Mary Astell, Aldershot: Gower, 1986.

Leduc, Guyonne (ed.), Inégalités femmes-hommes et utopie(s), Paris, L’Harmattan, 2017.

Looser, Devoney, British women writers and the writing of history, 1670-1820, John Hopkins University Press, 2005.

Parageau, Sandrine, The Paradoxes of Ignorance in Early Modern England and France, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2023.

Pateman, Carole, The Sexual Contract, London, Polity Press, 1988.

Schochet, Gordon, Patriarchalism in political thought: the authoritarian family and political speculation and attitudes, especially in seventeenth century, New York, Basic Books, 1975.
Springborg, Patricia, Mary Astell, Theorist of Freedom from Domination, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Tharu Susie, Lalitha, K., Women’s Writing in India: 600 B.C. to the present, Oxford University Press, 1993.

Trill, Suzanne, Chedgzoy, Kate, Osborne, Melanie (eds.), Lay by your Needles Ladies, Take the Pen. Writing Women in England 1500-1700, London, New York, Sidney, Aukland, Arnold, 1997.
Vanoflen, Laurence, Femmes et philosophie des Lumières. De l’imaginaire à la vie des idées, Paris, Garnier, 2020.
Verjus, Anne, Abolir le patriarcat. L'utopie féministe de James Henry Lawrence (1773-1840), Saint-Etienne, Presses universitaires de Saint-Etienne, 2025.