Early modern women philosophers and politics: Accommodating sphere restrictions

Abstract

In his Politics, Aristotle decreed that human beings neededto take part in politics to flourish, but that women, despitebeing human, needed to stay at home and away from pol-itics. This paper offers an overview of how early modernwomen philosophers worked to makes their lives morepolitical despite being constricted to the domestic sphere.Lucrezia Marinella argued that the home was like a smallcity, requiring quasi political skill to run, Cavendishbelieved that politics should cover the home and its in-habitants, not just the so‐called ‘public domain’. MaryAstell, less optimistic, thought that women could compen-sate for the urge to be political by retreating into a well‐educated mind.