'Good wives' and 'good mothers' : 18th century female identity in the dialogues by de Soldanis

Abstract

Early modern culture generated an ambivalent mental image of women. Women were split in two categories the 'good' (obedient, hard-working, non-sexual), and the 'bad' (frivolous, erotic). Official teachings portrayed the ideal woman as a temporal representation of an earthly Christian Madonna. Early modern official institutions, such as the Catholic Church, were male dominated. Men were entrusted with defining the expected societal beliefs and behaviour to which women had to adhere. These male-dominated governing bodies forced the female figure into a mould which shaped how to condition the female mind and body. With hindsight, this is a situation that appears to have ramifications on current perceptions, amid significant changes in gender dispositions. While a distinctive shift in ideas influencing gender relations have significantly changed since the eighteenth century, the traditional concept of 'natural' male supremacy towards a more 'modern' notion of gender equality had already been contested during the time when Gozitan Canon Agius de Soldanis, wrote his Dialogues, which are the focus of this study.