This article focuses on the status of women as a standard of civilization
by examining its emergence in the 19th-century European ‘society of
civilized states.’ More specifically, the article centers on expectations
about the proper political role of women and how these operated
as a standard to distinguish ‘civilized’ states from other societies.
The article shows that the political exclusion of women — not their
inclusion — became expected behavior for ‘advanced’ societies at this
time. To statesmen and social scientists alike, evidence from ‘savage’
society and an uncivilized European past demonstrated that women
could not contribute to human advancement if given a political role.
To arrive at this claim, the article examines the understandings that had
come into place to make the political exclusion of women possible and
reasonable for European and European settler states.