Women in the Nordic Enlightenment: Changing the narratives of early modern philosophy and uncovering women’s contribution to Scandinavian gender equality

Project Information

WHENCE

Grant agreement ID: 101097439

DOI

10.3030/101097439

EC signature date 8 June 2023

Start date 1 January 2024

End date 31 December 2028

Funded under

• European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 2 446 884,00

EU contribution

€ 2 446 884,00

Coordinated by

KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET
Denmark

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - WHENCE (Women in the Nordic Enlightenment: Changing the narratives of early modern philosophy and uncovering women’s contribution to Scandinavian gender equality)

Reporting period: 2024-01-01 to 2026-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The Enlightenment attracts a lot of scholarly attention due to its relevance for the emergence of modern philosophical thought and the identity of present-day Europe. Yet, women’s contribution to the Enlightenment has been largely ignored. WHENCE will fill this research gap in an original and groundbreaking way by focusing on an hitherto overlooked geographical region, namely Europe’s North. By targeting the writings of Scandinavian women, WHENCE will rovide results that describe the Nordic way of women’s Enlightenment. The guiding hypothesis is that this Nordic way significantly differs from developments prevalent in other regions of Europe, and that women played a decisive role in creating a sustainable identification of the Nordic countries with gender equality. The overall objective of WHENCE is to uncover and critically assess women’s intellectual contribution to the Nordic Enlightenment. This nvestigation includes two further objectives, namely, to change the standard narratives of the development of the Nordic Enlightenment, and to assess women’s role in the emergence of Scandinavian gender equality.
• What was women’s intellectual contribution to the Nordic Enlightenment?
• How does women’s thought change our understanding of the individual and of society during the early modern period?
• What was the impact of women’s thought on the emergence of Scandinavian gender equality?

To adequately investigate women’s writings, the project uses various methods in an original way. It combines classical philosophical analysis and archival research with new insights developed in gender studies and feminist history of philosophy. Moreover, WHENCE has a strong interdisciplinary outlook and uses the new tool Trajectories to relate historical findings to contemporary debates. Given the persistence of gender inequality in today’s society, the threats women are facing in the public sphere, and the upheaval caused by the MeToo movement, this project is essential and timely. The overall objective of WHENCE is to bring to light and critically assess women’s intellectual contribution to the Nordic Enlightenment. It thereby serves two further objectives: (1) The project changes our view of the Nordic Enlightenment and (2) reveals women’s contribution to the development of Scandinavian gender equality during the Early Modern period. The research so far conducted shows that we have taken important steps towards reaching these goals.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

In addition to the invididual research conducted by two PhD students, five postdoctoral researchers and the PI, and the organisation of several workshops and international conferences, the team prepared two major joint publication: (i) A collective volume on “How Women Shaped the Nordic Enlightenment: The Religious and Scholarly Spheres” and (ii) a source book on “Women’s Voices in the Nordic Enlightenment” (planned publication date Fall 2026). These joint publications provide compelling evidence for women’s participation in and contribution to the Nordic Enlightenment. The edited volume examines how the Enlightenment in the Nordic countries appears when seen from the vantage point of women’s experiences and writings. The chapters analyse how women shaped the period through their intellectual, religious, and political writings and activities, while remaining attentive to the restrictions women had to navigate. Accordingly, the volume explores women’s agency in relation to topics, spaces of activity, and text genres that were accessible and of particular interest to women. This evidence then brought into dialogue with prevailing understandings of the Nordic Enlightenment. In doing so, the volume contributes to expandind and nuancing our conception of the Nordic Enlightenment.

The source book is a collection of primary sources accompanied by English translations that present women’s thought on religious, moral, and political topics reflecting women’s lived experience in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway during the Early Modern period. The aim of the volume is to make works written by women - largely overlooked in research and debates about the European Enlightenment - accessible to a wider audience, both in Scandinavia and internationally. The collection includes a broad range of text forms, such as prefaces, dedications, poems, and letters dating from the mid-17th century to the end of the 18th century (containing Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish text written by women during the 17th and 18th century). The sourcebook will make assessible to a wider academic and non-academic public the writings of women, that have hitherto been overlooked and marginalised.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Through the research conducted in the WHENCE project, we manage to establish a new field of study (i.e. Women in the Nordic Enlightenment). By presenting our research results at numerous workshops and conferences in Denmark, across Europe, in the US, and in Australia, we are able to draw significant attention to this emerging field and to bring together key scholars of the Nordi c Enlightenment on the one hand, and on early modern women’s thought on the other.

Futhermore, our research reveales what the enlightenment period looked like when viewed from the vantage point of women in the Nordic countries. Women of the period successfully challenged patriarchal societal structures and renegotiated the restrictions imposed on them due to their gender by participating in religions, scholarly, and political public spheres. Women also argued forcefully their cause, exposing societal gender-based injustices by highlighting contradictions within dominant arguments and theories. Many of these women became recognised as public writers and contributed to ongoing debates, advocating for women’s access to education, for their right to make use their intellectual abilities, and for becoming public intellectuals. They also defended women’s rule and argued that women who exercised sovereign power were legitimate and inteded by god.

Contrary to common belief, our research provides evidence that these discussions were not niche or conducted only by a few of exceptional women. Quite the opposite: numerous women - from the middle-class as well as from lower and higher nobility -reflected on and had an impact on the intellectual and political status of women. Through their writings, they addressed a broad audience, including both men and women, thereby aiming to build broad societal consent and support for improving women’s status. They did not shy away from appealing to religious, scholarly and political authorities. Our research shows that women significantly contributed to debates on gender equality already during the early modern period, and that their efforts helped pave the way for the legal reforms implemented later in the 19th and early 20th centuries.