The Emerging Female Citizen

"Eighteenth-century Spanish women were not idle bystanders during one of Europe's most dynamic eras. As Theresa Ann Smith demonstrates in this book, Spanish intellectuals, calling for Spain to modernize its political, social, and economic institutions, brought the question of women's place to the forefront, as did women themselves."

"As artists, writers, and reformers, Spanish women took up pens, joined academies and economic societies, formed tertulias - similar to French salons - and became active in the burgeoning public discourse of the Enlightenment. In explaining how women's actions and public discourse worked together to define women's roles in the nation during this period, The Emerging Female Citizen not only illustrates the rising visibility of women, but also reveals the complex processes that led to women's relatively swift exit from most public institutions by the early 1800s.

In her analysis of the meaning of women's presence in diverse centers of the Enlightenment, Smith offers a new interpretation of the dynamic relationships among political discourse, social action, and gender ideologies."--Jacket.