How did a major religious, intellectual, or political transformation Essay - 1

How did a major religious, intellectual, or political transformation affect feminist ideas and demands Answer with an that focuses on one such transition - Essay Example ance from 600 BCE to Present to illustrate the historical underpinnings of feminist thought, with a special focus on the underlying political transformation. Marlene LeGates states that the events and circumstances surrounding the French Revolution of eighteenth century provided crucial political transformations which were later manifest fully during the feminist movement. The French tradition of ‘querelle des femmes’ served as an open forum for both men and women to freely express their political opinions. At these gatherings, members of both sexes were known to express their discontent with the then prevailing religious, political and intellectual culture. This forum allowed women to question the â€Å"authoritarian, hierarchical and patriarchal† social order that most considered the natural and only social arrangement possible. It also has to be remembered that the preceding century was also the time when two crucial breakthroughs were achieved in the intellectual realm. These were the discoveries made by Galileo Galilei about the cosmos surrounding earth and the physical laws of nature purported by Isaac Newton. T he significance of a forum such as ‘querelle des femmes’ should be seen in light of the way these parallel scientific developments were treated by the religious and political Establishment of the day. The fact that women freely argued and expressed their opinion with men at a time when Galileo was being persecuted by the Church for expressing scientific truths, says something about the advanced status of women in the period immediately preceding the French Revolution (LeGates, p.121). It is then apt to infer that the political transformation that is effected by the French Revolution of the late Eighteenth century is induced by and later absorbed into notions of gender equality during the feminist movement. In the preceding century, equally important political developments took place across the English Channel, namely the establishment