The “Son of Civil Society”: Tensions in Hegel's Account of Womanhood

This paper starts with the establishment of a fact: just like the theories of his predecessors, Kant and Fichte, Hegel's theory of womanhood is characterised by a vivid tension. Alongside his famous misogynous stance, it is possible to find passages which are much more favorable to women, and I will argue that the logic of his system should have led him to conclusions very close to recognising women's equal rights in social, economic, and political spheres. Furthermore, Kant actually perceived this tension and the possibility open by his own prem- ises for a more woman-friendly philosophy. I will look at this tension in detail and try to draw some conclusions from it. What does Hegel's final choice in favour of the more conservative view teach us about the relationship between philosophy and its time? What does a speculative theory of womanhood teach us about philosophy of womanhood? What does it teach us about philosophy? Hegel's views on the inferiority of women are well known, either from the Phenomenology of Spirit or the Philosophy of Right. They generally agree with Kant and Fichte's teachings on the same topic. The main difference between these philosophers does not lie in their conclusions, but in their particular specu- lative methods. Kant does not attempt a transcendental deduction (as Fichte does) or a justification through the moments of the concept (as Hegel does). He contents himself with the reference to nature as the ultimate criterion. However, if we study all the passages on women in Kant's writings, we find all the same determinations of womanhood as in Fichte and Hegel. Kant's views on women can mainly be found in the 1764 text on the Beautiful and the Sublime which foreshadows the third Critic, in his Anthropology, and in the Metaphysics of Morals. Fichte devoted a great number of pages to the question of womanhood