Being a female Author in the 18^th Century:

After seeing what the situation of a male author was during the 18^th century, now it is important to compare it with the situation of a female author.

Education in the 18^th Century might have been quite widespread and mandatory for men, but it was not the same case for women. Women will have to wait until 1882 to have to get an education. Before this year, women’s education was always secondary to men’s education and not focused on the same subjects. When boys were learning about sciences and literature, girls learnt how to take care of a house and of their families. Therefore, almost all the educated women from the 18^th Century came from a wealthy background, allowing them to have access to a tutor for example. The most influential women were also allowed to partake in literary discussions in philosophy circles. It does mean that women authors were recognized by the community, wrote and published books.

During the Old Regime:

Thanks to the lack of a nationalized legal system before the revolution, women were not forbidden to write and publish their work. Indeed, their works were also able to obtain the “Privilège du Roi” as can be seen here, in a essay written by Emilie du Châtelet. Depending on the content of their works, women authors could also get their pieces of works printed outside of France to avoid censorship. During this time, even though a woman could publish their work, depending on their marital situation, they might not have been able to. In her article Hesse states that: “a woman's right to publish her work was contingent upon her husband's consent. And, if she did publish, the legal claim to her work belonged to him.” In the article we have the example of M. Necker, one of the King’s counsellors, who had legally prevented his wife from publishing.

Widowed women and never married women were a little bit freer about handling their work and their estates. They did not need their father’s consent or son’s consent to publish their works. Indeed, in the article, there are 2 examples of women who waited until they were separated from their husbands to start their literary carrier: Mme de Riccoboni and Mme de Graffigny.

After the Revolution:

After the Revolution unfortunately not a lot of things changed for women authors, especially not for married women. Despite the gain of the status of individual for men, women did not win such a victory. Married women were still under the power of their husbands, and even after the Revolution, a woman could still be stopped from publishing their works if the husband did not consent. For the unmarried and never married women, the laws and their rights did not change to much either.

It also must be noted that despite the consent that the husband could give for the publication, it was not a common thing for a woman to print their name on the first page of the artwork. Their names were usually not very found in the book due to potential fear of punishment, censorship or not wanting your name to be published and affect some of your relatives’ lives.

In Conclusion:

Publishing your works as a woman during the 18^th century was not impossible yet, it was not easy, and a lot of obstacles were barring the way before the publication but also after with some married women not obtaining the rights to their own works for example.