Abstract

The subject of the present work is the relationship between feminism and liberal philosophy. This relationship is reflected not only by pointing to the same social ideas (such as freedom, equality, and political autonomy) but also by the similarity of the postulates formulated by liberals and emancipationists. The fact that those views are alike is also visible when we consider the attitudes of first suffragettes. Their dialoguedirected attitude leading to theoretical openness and allowing a critical evaluation of the assumptions of their own protects from dogmatism. The background for the above considerations is philosophy as well as the history of Great Britain - the country which has been a cradle of liberalism and feminism. The first section of this paper deals with the main assumptions of liberal philosophy, its importance, and its influence on emancipation. Then the author outlines the historical and cultural setting in which the movement of women's rights came into being. The second section is concerned with Mary Wollstonecraft's position, with English suffragettes (early and late ones) who refer to the ideas promoted by socialists and liberals, and with the social philosophy of John Stuart Mill. Wollstonecraft capitalized the meaning of autonomy, need for selfperfection and rationality. She was the first emancipationist to present a theory telling that there is a cultural phenomenon of gender constructing, and she tracked down the causes of the differences between women and men to education. In this part of the paper the views of Frances Wright, Anna Wheeler, Harriet Martineau, Catherine Barmby, Anne Knight, Harriet Taylor, and Barbara Leigh Smith are also presented. Those authors were innfluenced by such philosophers as Claude de Saint Simon Charles Fourier and Robert Owen, as well as liberals. There were pointed out some important similarities that socialists and emacipationist share. This section describes carefully the position of J. S. Mill, who demanded equal rights regardless of sex. This philosopher managed to put together the liberal ideas of freedom of speech, autonomy and tolerance with the idea of progress, and also to justify philosophically the necessity of engaging in an open dialogue. In the third section the author has outlined the relation between early and late suffragettes - radical activists of the movement of women's rights that were not interested in engaging in an open dialogue. In the summary of this paper the author has outlined the consequences of combining feminism with liberalism as well as the philosophical consequences of dialogue-directed attitude ( i.e. antidogmatism, theoretical openess, tolerance and individualism).