Speaker
Description
As perceptive as Adam Smith was examining the society around him, he seems to have surprisingly little to say about women in the economic and in the private life. In the Wealth of Nations he dismisses women's work, both the wide range of domestic work and the laboring outside of home. In the Lectures of Jurisprudence women do have a role in the presentation of emergence and significance of the marriage institution. However, in the Theory of Moral Sentiments things get interesting. While talking of women as subjects of sympathy Smith argues that women are not as capable of self-regulation as men but are more impulsive and irrational in controlling their feelings and making their judgements. So according to Smith women might have a handicap in reaching the impartial spectator and so becoming better persons. At this point it is intriguing to have a look at Mary Wollstonecraft's assessment about women at her time. She does not give them high grades at all, but she does give some thoroughly thought and well justified reasons for the state of women. Women lack the possibility to educate themselves and the means to be independent and self-sufficient, while they, nevertheless, possess the mental capacity to improve themselves and the world around them. Smith too, talks in length about education, the importance of learning for instance self-control. Education to become a better person is exactly what Wollstonecraft is arguing for, too. Women need to have the possibilities to educate themselves and they will be able to be the good persons they have the potential to be, both in private and public life. Wollstonecraft imagined a future woman who is independent both in public and private sphere, while Smith's imagination may have failed him at this matter. Both of them agree that becoming a successful ethical agent requires some education and training.
| Organization | Faculty of Social Sciences, Philosophy, Tampere University, Finland |
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