SOURCE: Gardner, Elizabeth J. “The Philosophes and Women: Sensationalism and Sentiment.” In Women and Society in Eighteenth-Century France: Essays in Honour of John Stephenson Spink, edited by Eva Jacobs et al., pp. 19-27. London: Athlone Press, 1979.

In the following essay, Gardner distinguishes Condorcet's thoughts on women from those of other French philosophes, including Helvétius and Diderot.

Feminism was not a cause espoused by the philosophes, with the obvious exception of Condorcet, who is anyway not always included in their ranks. It is not sufficient, however, merely to claim that women were naturally included in the general programme of amelioration these thinkers envisaged. For the views of the philosophes on women must be considered within their own terms of reference; and while it would be anachronistic to labour any supposedly anti-feminist remarks culled from their disparate writings, it is of interest to examine the various theoretical conclusions which...