Introduction: Thinking Women and Victorian Ideas

Abstract

As a social group virtually always of the male sex and masculine gender, intellectuals have been characterised by cultural historians and sociologists in two important ways. From the time of their origin in the universities of medieval Europe and the concomitant growth of their class with the rise of humanism, intellectuals are perceived either as alienated from dominant beliefs and practices in a particular culture or as legitimating those beliefs and practices. A brief summary of the views of four representative theorists of intellectual life, Julien Benda, Karl Mannheim, Edward Shils, and Alvin Gouldner, will outline the central issues and indicate the problematical task of defining women’s intellectual work.