Margaret Cavendish on Gender, Nature, and Freedom

Bibliographic Data

ID12147684
AuthorsDeborah Boyle (0000-0003-2975-2268, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume28
Issue3
Pages516-532
Publication date2012-06-22
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHypatia (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0887-5367 • E-ISSN: 1527-2001
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/j.1527-2001.2012.01307.x
OpenAlexW2169199099
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited14

Some scholars have argued that Margaret Cavendish was ambivalent about women's roles and capabilities, for she seems sometimes to hold that women are naturally inferior to men, but sometimes that this inferiority is due to inferior education. I argue that attention to Cavendish's natural philosophy can illuminate her views on gender. In section II I consider the implications of Cavendish's natural philosophy for her views on male and female nature, arguing that Cavendish thought that such natures were not fixed. However, I argue that although Cavendish thought women needed to be better educated, and could change if they had such an education, she also thought their education should reinforce the feminine virtues. Section III examines Cavendish's notorious “Preface to the Reader” (from The Worlds Olio ), where Cavendish claims that women are naturally inferior in strength and intelligence to men. Section IV addresses another notorious Cavendish text, “Female Orations,” arguing that its message is similar to that of the “Preface to the Reader.” Nonetheless, although Cavendish held conventional views about male and female nature and appropriate gender roles, she also recognized how social institutions could limit women's freedom; section V explores the complexities of Cavendish's critique of one such institution, patriarchal marriage

Ambivalence · Epistemology · Institution · Natural (archaeology · Natural law · Natural Philosophy · Psychoanalysis · Section (typography · Social science · Sociology · Gender Studies · History · History and Developments in Astronomy · Medical History and Innovations · Philosophy · Psychology

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