ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the feminist work that concentrates on increasing women's opportunities, freeing them to use and develop their capacity for reason. The work of feminist theorists critiquing representations of so-called "human" through reason and lack of opportunities and development of projects for themselves is invaluable. Throughout the history of Western philosophy, one of the most important components to possess in order to be considered a human is the capacity for reason. The capacity for reason was incorporated into Western understanding of what it is to be a human being, with common essence that all are equally said to have being the capacity for moral agency. Second wave feminists had much to say about "reason" as the necessary component of human nature or subjectivity and how it impacted on women. The assumption that all individuals have an equal capacity for reason has been described as the basis of liberalism's central moral belief: the intrinsic and ultimate value of human individual.
