What was the role of women in the romanticism phase?

Answer 1

Women played an important role in the Romantic era as writers and thinkers. During the eighteenth and nineteenth century, it was commonly believed that men were rational and women were emotional/intuitive. Yet Romanticism valued the emotional and intuitive, as well as the creative, thus giving women a platform to emerge into the literary/intellectual world.

In fact, one of the best known works of Romantic fictions comes from a woman: Mary Godwin Shelley's Frankenstein (1818). Shelley wrote the story in a very Romantic style--a creation myth, genius gone wrong, and powerful feelings. Another famous woman in the Romanticism phase was Madame de Stael. Madame de Stael emigrated from Germany to France and did an amazing job of popularizing German Romanticism in France with her work "De l'Allemagne".

Romanticism declared that men were just as emotional as women since they share a common nature. Thus, not only did women play roles as writers/thinkers in the Romanticism phase, the Romanticism phase played a large role in bringing women to the same "level" as men.