ABSTRACT
Women in the fifteenth through eighteenth centuries - a period now termed “early modern” - advocated for many things that would be key demands of later feminists, such as better education for women and more equitable marriage laws. They exhibited a consciousness of gender, deploring ideas and institutions that hindered women and arguing for women’s equality - or even superiority - in terms of rational capacity and moral virtue. This essay looks at women in different parts of the world whose words and actions can be seen as part of feminism’s historical development, focusing on five topics: debates about women’s character and nature, calls for better education for women, critiques of marriage and proposals to change it, women’s use of religion as justification for speaking and acting, and political actions and calls for political rights for women.
