Feminist Ideology

The feminist ideology is apparent in the French Lodges of Adoption. The “uniting sentiments of kinship, friendship and love” in Freemasonry drew many of the elite women into becoming involved and were the foundation for many of their model (Burke). The women were very drawn to the ideas of being united and of becoming independent. It is in the lodges that the women “were taught to understand their rights as women and demand them from the world dominated by men” (Burke). In effect, like the men who felt brotherhood, the women felt “sisterhood and loyalty” (Burke). Grouped with the ideals of equality in the Enlightenment is what makes up the “form of eighteenth-century feminism” (Huffmire, 6). On a more extremist note, the women were also taught to ““recognize the injustice of men, to throw off the masculine yoke, to dominate in marriage, and to claim equal wealth with men, among other things” (Burke and Jacob).

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