François de Salan

François de Salignac, known as Poulain de la Barre, stands out in the history of arguments about women as a determined seventeenth-century defender of equality. In Simone de Beauvoir’s account, he rejects the use of women’s past achievements as evidence of inferiority: their unequal position, he argues, reflects their exclusion from freedom and education, not an inherent lack of capacity.

Identity and Context

Poulain de la Barre appears in a survey of the long dispute over women’s status, where women’s successes often prompted fresh attacks even as advocates defended their abilities. Against this background, he is identified as the period’s most determined feminist. His intervention belongs to a history in which women were judged by standards set by men despite having been denied comparable opportunities.

Argument for Equality

In his 1673 work De l’égalité des deux sexes (The Equality of the Two Sexes), Poulain de la Barre argues that men’s greater physical strength leads them to favor their own sex, while women accept dependence through custom. Women, he maintains, have never had equal chances in either freedom or education; consequently, their historical record cannot fairly establish that they are inferior.

He acknowledges anatomical differences between the sexes but denies that these differences confer a privilege on men. His conclusion is practical as well as critical: women should receive a solid education. Equality, in this account, requires changing the conditions under which women develop and are assessed, rather than treating an unequal history as proof of natural incapacity.

Place in the History of Women’s Education

Poulain de la Barre’s educational demand appears alongside a wider, divided debate. Other writers supported women’s learning in different ways: Father du Boscq called for women to be educated, while Fontenelle wrote Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds for them, and Rollin favored serious study. By contrast, educational proposals associated with Fénelon remained limited. Poulain de la Barre’s distinctive force lies in connecting education to the broader question of women’s freedom and their unequal treatment.

His position also anticipates a central distinction in Beauvoir’s analysis: bodily difference does not by itself explain a social hierarchy. Women’s capacities cannot be judged independently of the constraints imposed on them. The argument makes education not a concession to an already established inferiority, but a necessary condition for challenging the customs that have kept women dependent.