Session moderated by Patrick Boucheron.
Each 30-minute paper is followed by a 10-minute discussion.
The scientific world of the eighteenth century was still organized on the principle of the " male enclosure of knowledge " (Michèle Le Doeuff). Neither universities nor academies accepted women. Women's access to education was limited, and prejudice against women's knowledge remained strong. Émilie du Châtelet, for example, protested against the " prejudice that universally excludes us from the sciences " and called for women to benefit from " all the rights of mankind and especially those of the mind ".
However, beyond her now emblematic case, recent historical works, such as those by Nina Gelbart, highlight the active role played by several women scientists : mathematicians, astronomers, physicists and botanists. They were rare, but their merit was sometimes recognized and praised. This paper will present a few of these female contributions to Enlightenment science, and will focus on their experience in a world that was essentially male, but perhaps less closed than one might think. What emerges at the heart of Enlightenment culture is the tension between a gendered imaginary of knowledge and a more universalist conception of science.
