Remarks on Women's Education in the Age of Enlightenment and Mademe d'Epinay

Abstract

In this article, firstly, the education of young girls during the Enlightenment period is studied. Different approaches of writers and pedaogues are presented. In this context, the opinions of Louise d'Epinay belonging to a wealthy family are analysed : she defended that the young girls should be educated by their mothers even if this fact did not correspond to the traditions of the XVIUth century aristocracy. Even if Madame d'Epinay did not have a good education herself due to the indifference of her mother, she dealt with this problem alone by the help of conversations she held with her talented friends. By using the same methods which is basicly conversations, she educated her daughter and grand daughter. With her Conversations d'Emilie, not only she was known as the first French woman writer who has won a literary price but also she evoked a critical approach to the thoughts of Jean-Jacques Rousseau who was considered as one of the most important and respected French pedagogues of the XVIIIth century.