Gabrielle Suchon
Gabrielle Suchon was a French moral philosopher who participated in debates about the social, political and religious condition of women in the early modern era. Her most prominent works are the Traité de la morale et de la politique and Du célibat volontaire.
Suchon is considered the first philosopher to produce a significant body of work dedicated solely to the topic of women. Suchon's writing is unique because she specifically addresses women, as opposed to most moral philosophy of the time, whose primary audience was men. She is considered the only female philosopher of her time without a male intellectual advisor or husband.
In her works, Suchon argues that women are deserving of the natural rights of liberty, learning and authority. She asserts that a woman can live a fulfilling life while unmarried and promotes the power of voluntary celibacy on secular terms.
Early life
Gabrielle Suchon was born in Semur-en-Auxios, France, on December 24, 1632, to Claude Mongin and Claude Suchon. Gabrielle's mother, Claude Mongin, came from a relatively well-off land-owning family. Many of the men in the Mongin family had served as jurists in France. Gabrielle's father came from a line of minor nobles who had historically served as public officials. Claude Suchon served as the King's prosecutor until his death in 1645.Gabrielle Suchon may have had a younger brother, also named Claude Suchon.
Education
Suchon was self-educated because women were barred from studying at public institutions during her lifetime. Her writings make clear that she was well versed in the holy scriptures and the works of both classic and contemporary philosophers and writers.Suchon studied the works of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca, Plutarch and other ancient philosophers. She utilized their praise of female qualities figures and characteristics to craft her arguments for women's equality.
Suchon refers to the work of Scholastics such as St. Thomas and St. John of the Cross. She also responds to the notable feminist treatise Of the Equality of the Two Sexes by François Poulain de la Barre.
Suchon cites evidence from various chapters of the Bible in her Traité de la morale et de la politique. She spent her early years in a convent, where she most likely received the religious education of a nun. Since nuns were forbidden to read directly from the scripture without the interpretation of a male bishop, it is likely that Suchon continued her biblical education, as well as her studies of the classics and contemporary philosophy after leaving the convent.
Adult life
Convent in Semur
Suchon's adult life is primarily pieced together through official church documents. Her whereabouts during many of her adult years remain a mystery. Most sources say that Suchon was sent to a Dominican convent in Semur after her father's death in 1645 and resided there until 1666.Recent historical research has disputed when and why Suchon was sent to the convent in Semur. Some researchers speculate that Suchon was sent to the convent shortly after her father's death to alleviate her family's financial burdens. Others suggest that she may have been sent to the convent some years later after failing to secure a desirable marriage.
Contestation of vows
Church documents have revealed that on October 15, 1666, Suchon was legally transferred from the convent in Semur to the Jacobin monastery at Langres. It is unclear whether Suchon ever took residence at the Langres convent and there is speculation that Suchon may have used the guise of this transfer to escape entirely and travel to Rome. Suchon did file a petition to the pope to contest her vows and restore herself to lay person. Suchon's petition was read by the Congregation of the Council in Rome on September 10, 1672. Documents show that in 1673 Suchon was no longer on the roster of nuns at Langres. Suchon's desire to denounce her vows was the cause of the strained relationship with her family for most of her life.Life as a lay woman
Very little is known about Suchon's life outside of the convent. Suchon most likely began her life as a lay woman in 1673. Evidence suggests that Suchon spent around twenty years in Dijon teaching and writing before she released her Traité de la morale et de la politique in 1693.Suchon remained unmarried her whole life. She died on March 5, 1703, in Dijon, France, after spending her last years teaching children and writing.
Works
Background
Suchon wrote while an intellectual debate called the querelle des femmes or 'the woman question' was taking place in Europe. Writers in the movement responded to attacks upon women by debating the moral and social nature of womanhood. Participants in the querelle des femmes were an unequal mix of male and female intellectuals. Men dominated the movement, even in a genre that centered around the condition of women. Due to the content of her work and the time in which she wrote, most historians consider Suchon to have contributed to this intellectual movement.The established structure of arguments belonging to the querelle des femmes movement consisted of two approaches: identifying women throughout history whose actions exemplified their worthiness and analyzing the social and economic reasons for women being seen as unequal. Suchon's Traité de la morale et de la politique differs and expands upon the model put forth by prominent writers in the querelle des femmes. Suchon is the only female participant in the querelle des femmes to write a treatise, considered to be a comprehensive and authoritative form of writing. In her treatise, she establishes that her style and approach is original and emphasizes her individuality as a writer. Her writing suggests that she believed her methods to be superior to the standard argumentative styles of the querelle des femmes.
Suchon is the first philosopher to condemn marriage and to discuss female celibacy in a secular sense. Furthermore, she is one of the first philosophers to state that her audience is women, not men. This is significant because women were restricted from reading and partaking in intellectual work and essentially all established academics were men during her lifetime. Her perspective would have been considered radical by both intellectuals and the common person, male or female.
''Traité de la morale et de la politique'' (Treatise on Morality and Politics)
Suchon originally published Traité de la morale et de la politique under the pseudonym 'G. S. Aristophile' in 1693. The pseudonym 'Aristophile' consists of the Greek roots aristo- meaning "excellence", and -phile, meaning "lover". Suchon's pseudonym is a play on words meaning 'lover of excellence'. Although Suchon uses a pseudonym, she is unafraid to reveal that she is a woman in the Preface of Traité de la morale et de la politique.The Traité de la morale et de la politique contains an analysis of female oppression and suggests a solution to this ancient, pervasive affliction. Suchon aims to motivate women to cast off the shackles of dependence and ignorance. Suchon's treatise is broken up into three sections: liberty, learning and authority. Suchon begins her treatise by stating that many women believe their inferior condition to be natural to their sex. Suchon condemns this idea and states that women have a capacity for learning and self-governance equal to that of men. She argues that the confinement of women to the private sphere is a mechanism of oppression. She urges women to resist societal expectations and to acquire education as a way to reverse their unjust subjugation to men.
Suchon asserts that religion and scripture is being used as a tool to reinforce the subjugation of women and male supremacy. Her idea of female autonomy directly challenges the authority of husbands and church fathers.
Suchon utilizes classical and religious texts to craft her argument for female empowerment. Her use of religious texts is a point of debate for modern historians. Post-enlightenment thinkers would classify Suchon's work as lacking in philosophical merit because it fails to exclude religious texts.
Liberty
In her section on liberty, Suchon depicts the complicated and extensive nature of women's deprivation of freedom throughout history.Suchon gives examples of admirable women in literature and throughout history in order to prove that women have the capacity to be independent of and equal to men. She asserts that both physical freedom and freedom to discover knowledge are natural rights.
Suchon states that men oppress and degrade women, and women are forced to respect their oppressors. She argues that God created rational beings to be free and asserts that when women are given the right to true freedom, they can negate the age-old idea that women are inherently inferior to men.
Learning
Suchon describes women as essentially equal to men in intellect. She argues that "women's deprivation of knowledge originates not in divine or natural law" and attributes female oppression to man-made social constructions. She argues that "ignorance is a form of slavery", and advocates for education as the tool with which women can combat their subjugation to men.From a religious standpoint, Suchon argues that a good Christian strives to better themselves. Women are deprived of the tools needed to better themselves spiritually and socially, specifically through education. Suchon asserts that by denying women the right to knowledge they are denied agency in the public sphere.
Authority
In the third section, Suchon discusses power relationships between men and women. She asserts that when women are denied authority, they are prevented from acting upon the innate tendency to do what is right. Suchon argues that God gave power over nature to both men and women and therefore, men's supposed superiority to women is a distortion of God's will.Suchon emphasizes the negative effect on society and the world at large by female oppression. Suchon argues that by barring women from intellectual debate, society as a whole is being deprived of great thinkers.
Suchon's treatise ends by raising the question of whether women can truly exercise their rights within a society that is created by and for men.