EDUCATION IN EUROPE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY AND ITS INFLUENCE ON FEMALE EDUCATION IN BRAZIL

Abstract

The chapter analyzes the introduction of education, from the eighteenth century onward, as a right and a social necessity aimed at the formation of citizens, examining its development in Europe — especially in Germany, England, and France — and the thought of authors such as Rousseau, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Olympe de Gouges. Initially, it highlights the role of the Protestant Reformation, particularly Lutheranism and Calvinism, in expanding female literacy. Women’s education was mainly intended to enable the reading of the Scriptures and to strengthen religious and family life, while still maintaining notions of female inferiority and domestic roles. With the Enlightenment, the French and Industrial Revolutions, and the advance of secularization, education came to be understood as an instrument for forming the modern citizen, linked to the State and grounded in scientific principles. Public school systems, teacher training, and the idea of universal instruction were consolidated. Rousseau occupies a central place in this debate, especially through Emile. Although considered the father of modern pedagogy, he proposed distinct educational models: Emile is prepared for citizenship, autonomy, and public life, whereas Sophie is educated for domesticity, submission, and service to her husband, reinforcing the division between male and female spheres. Feminist thinkers criticized this conception, denouncing women’s exclusion from citizenship and the social contract. The text concludes that, despite Enlightenment ideals of equality and freedom, education also served to legitimize gender inequality and sustain patriarchal domination for centuries.