Wychowanie i edukacja dziewcząt według Les Conversations d’Émilie Louise d’Épinay

Abstract

The Raising and Education of Girls as Formulated by Louise d’Épinay in Les Conversations d’Émilie The article presents the views of Louise d’Épinay on the education of girls against the background of her work, taking into account the particularly unusual case of the Histoire de Madame de Montbrillant. D’Épinay presented her views on the education of girls in Les Conversations d’Émilie, a work written under the influence of having to care for her granddaughter Émilie and written, above all, for her. This is an extraordinary pedagogical work in several respects. It was the only work by d’Épinay that was published under her own name during her lifetime. For most of her life, because of prevalent cultural stereotypes, she was against making her work public. The form of dialogues‑conversations, mother‑daughter conversations, makes up the central axis of Les Conversations, and the content has been adapted to the understanding of a small child. The fundamental premise of d’Épinay’s suggestions was a belief in the intellectual equality of the sexes. The opening of cognitive opportunities for girls in various areas, going beyond traditional women’s activities, created an opportunity to shape their mentality, but also led to discovering and learning about their own autonomy, identity, and female subjectivity. Among cultural conventions and stereotypes about the division of gender roles, d’Épinay, who partly accepted them, found an asylum and a reservoir of mental activity, female independence in the private, personal sphere, determined more by a mental dimension than by real boundaries of space and duties. Les Conversations are brave, pioneering views and reflections by a woman about girls’ education, a bold look at who a woman is at her core.