Description
Book SynopsisIn Government, Virtue, and the Female Prince in Seventeenth-Century France, the first volume of the two-volume study, the author examines the dominant discourse which excludes women from political authority before turning to the configuration of women and rulership in the pro-woman and egalitarian discourses of the period.
Trade Review“In this innovative study, Derval Conroy documents and analyzes the political debate concerning female governance in seventeenth-century France. … Ruling Women, written in an engaging and accessible style, present scholars, teachers, and students alike with a formidable resource to explore representations of queenship in seventeenth-century France. With this work Conroy makes an invaluable contribution to the study of women and gender issues in early modern Europe.” (Kathleen M. Llewellyn, Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 70 (1), 2017)
Table of Contents1. The Dynamics of Exclusion: 'Salic Law' and Constructions of Masculine Monarchy
2. Government by Women in Early Modern 'Galleries' of Women
3. Engendering Equality: Gynæcocracy in Gournay, Poullain de la Barre, and Suchon
