Kimberly Begg Leads 18th-Century Book Club to Challenge New Gender Stereotypes
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Aug 24
Kimberly Begg Leads 18th-Century Book Club to Challenge New Gender Stereotypes
1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Aug 24
Summary
Kimberly Begg used a July book club session for summer interns and young staff at the Clare Boothe Luce Center for Conservative Women to push back on a rising movement prescribing stricter roles for women.
An 18th-century text anchored the discussion: Mary Wollstonecraft’s critique of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s view that “man was made to reason, woman to feel.”
Begg said she increasingly hears that same split cast in modern terms — women as “feelers” and men as “thinkers” — and framed the session as a direct rebuttal.
The episode highlights a tension inside conservative circles, where some young women want careers and motherhood even as online manosphere voices press more traditional gender hierarchies.