Education and Female Consciousness in the Greek Communities of the Ottoman Empire (19th c): The Hindrance of the Emergence of a Feminist Consciousness

Abstract

THE VIEWS expressed by Enlightenment –along with its contradictions– on the “female question” that were inherited into the nineteenth century, combined with the exemplar of the female virtuousness brought forth by the Greek Enlightenment, the dominance of the restrictive bourgeois moral values and the emergence of the social Darwinism theories, which lent scientific validity to patriarchal views, are among the most significant ideological parameters that shaped female education and determined its aims and knowledge provision. Within this ideological framework, women’s education turned out to be an inhibitory mechanism against the development of a feminist consciousness, as on the one hand it reproduced the prevailing ideology of women’s nature and social role, whereas on the other it was seen as an innovative and influential factor with respect both to women’s life and to the ethnic community’s cultural revival, as well. However, the major parameter which can justify the absence of a feminist consciousness and the inexistence of female movements has been the ideological system promoted by nationalism and irredentism (‘alytrotismos’), which invaded Balkans and demanded the coiling of the entire Greek community – regardless of gender.