Debating Women, Politics, and Power in Early Modern Europe

Download or read book Debating Women, Politics, and Power in Early Modern Europe written by S. Jansen and published by Springer. This book was released on 2008-04-14 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The sixteenth century was an age of politically powerful women. Queens, acting in their own right, and female regents, acting on behalf of their male relatives, governed much of Western Europe. Yet even as women ruled - and ruled effectively - their right to do so was hotly contested. Men s voices have long dominated this debate, but the recovery of texts by women now allows their voices, long silenced, to be heard once again. Debating Women, Politics, and Power in Early Modern Europe is a study of texts and textual production in the construction of gender, society, and politics in the early modern period. Jansen explores the "gynecocracy" debate and the larger humanist response to the challenge posed by female sovereignty.