International workshop, McGill University (Montreal), and online, 5-6 June 2026.
Long in the shadows of the Enlightenment, Louise Dupin (1706–1799) is now emerging as a major thinker on gender equality during the early modern period. It was not until 1884 that some of her short essays were first published under her name. Until then, she was associated only with two unsigned critiques of Montesquieu’s L’Esprit des lois, which saw very small print runs and were attributed mainly to her husband. Recent research by Frédéric Marty (Classiques Garnier, 2022) and Rebecca Wilkin & Angela Hunter (Oxford, 2023) finally brought to light the reconstruction of her manuscript Des Femmes.
Before being scattered among libraries in Europe and North America or disappearing into private collections, these manuscripts remained unpublished and unfinished, likely due to their critical nature. Between 1743 and 1751, Louise Dupin filled hundreds of pages with the help of secretaries, including the young Rousseau. In these pages, she challenged the gender hierarchy imposed by scientific, political, religious, and moral authorities. She gathered documentation from historical sources to prove that « originally, there was an equality of rights between men and women ». In doing so, she challenged the very foundations of the Ancien Régime, whose stability rested on an immutable division of social roles. This division was dictated by women’s subordination – considered natural – as well as by class privilege, which she did not question.
The completion of this editorial work thus marks a turning point that we can now build upon to reposition Louise Dupin’s thought within the history of ideas. This workshop aims to contribute to new narratives in the history of philosophy, aligning with a current historiographical trend that involves revisiting the canon to make it more faithful to the past. In this way, the spirit of our discussions will highlight Louise Dupin’s own philosophical methodology. By proposing a new narrative of women’s history and through critical readings of texts both past and present, she demanded the restoration of their original freedom, equality, and dignity.
The full program is available here.
