If you judged a history book by its cover, or even its contents, it’s safe to assume that women didn’t exist – or at least, not extensively – until the likes of Elizabeth Cady Stanton or Eleanor Roosevelt. Sure, there was the occasional Joan of Arc and Queen Isabella of Spain, but this small record of notable women is pitiful considering we’ve made up half of humankind for 200,000 years now. But despite insufficient documentation and historical injustice, women have had a pervasive and enduring impact on the world.
It is true that, “Well-behaved women seldom make history,” so it would make sense that some history’s most influential women were the mistresses of notable figures. Of course, everyone knows Marilyn and Monica’s stories of infidelity and scandal, but I caution you to not let these modern archetypes interfere with your judgement of history’s mistresses. While it’s easy to assume the worst of these women, it is imperative that we consider the world in which they lived; a world where marriages were less about love and more about political and/or economic arrangements; a time when women’s “misbehavior” could’ve been something as simple as making their presence known in a world where people expected them to be silent
So this Women’s History Month, let’s indulge ourselves in the history lesson that never was and learn about a few of these women who broke the rules and changed the course of human history.
1. Aspasia of Miletus
“It is that maid of Miletus, Aspasia, the consort of the Olympian [Pericles], himself a marvel beyond compare. Putting before us, in her, no mean pattern of understanding, let us take all that she had of experience in affairs, shrewdness in statescraft, quick-wittedness, and penetration, and transfer the whole of it to our own picture by accurate measurement.” –Lucian, Imagines (XVII)
Classical-era Athens is celebrated as the birthplace of democracy and the heart of intellectual and philosophical opportunity. No one knows Athenian democracy better than Pericles, a renowned statesman, orator and general, who presided over this budding city-state during its Golden Age.
It could be argued that Pericles’s successes were due in large part to his long-time lover, Aspasia of Miletus, an immigrant living in Athens in fifth century B.C. Unfortunately, the benefits of the early democracy, i.e. public education and access to power, were exclusive to men while women remained confined to their homes, husbands and motherhood. But because Aspasia wasn’t an Athenian citizen, she was not allowed to marry an Athenian man, so while she was denied citizenship she was free of most legal constraints that women faced during that period.
With those pesky societal expectations out of the way she was free to participate in public life as an intellectual, a teacher and a writer. It is rumored that she was a teacher of Socrates and influenced many of Pericles’s speeches, even his famous Funeral Oration has been contributed to her pen. She created an intellectual salon in her home where Athen’s great thinkers like Socrates, Plato and Pericles himself came to discuss and debate. She is considered closest thing to a liberated woman Classical Athens ever saw. Not only that, but she yielded great power over foreign and domestic policy alike. She is credited with introducing the concept of gender equality into philosophical discussion and may have been the cause of the Peloponnesian wars.
References to Aspasia can be found in the works of other distinguished philosophers, writers, historians and orators. Some of her contemporaries criticized her for being one of those not-so-well-behaved women (keep in mind that Pericles and Aspasia were incredibly fond of each other, but not allowed to marry because Athenian law), but even Plutarch who regularly criticized her for her supposed immorality and even blamed her for Samian War, praised her for her influence which allowed her to, “manage as she pleased the foremost men of the state, and afforded the philosophers occasion to discuss her in exalted terms and at great length.”
Overall, Aspasia was an intelligent and powerful b**a**who undoubtedly left her mark on history by bending and breaking the rules that governed women of her time.
2. Jeanne Antoinette
Born in 1720 to the Parisian bourgeoisie as Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, but later in her life she became known as Jeanne Antoinette, Marquise de Pompadour, Maîtresse-en-titre or official mistress to King Louis XV, France’s tiniest monarch.
French monarchs were known for having mistresses, sometimes several at a time, but Jeanne Antoinette was different for several reasons. For starters, most mistresses were of France’s elite aristocracy, but Jeanne Antoinette distinguished herself by being a commoner. Some royal courtiers criticized her and questioned her intellectual ability to keep up with the goings-on of state politics, however she proved to be not only competent, but incredibly proficient.
When her health prevented her from continuing to be his mistress, she became a friend, confidant and trusted advisor of Louis XV. Her influence resulted in Louis XV signing the Treaty of Versailles, the construction of École Militaire, the military school Napoleon attended, and establishing France’s surviving porcelain industry.
Besides her political and economic influence, Jeanne Antoinette also had a profound impact on art, architecture, and culture in France. It was because of Jeanne Antoinette that Paris saw a transformation from overgrown village to the European capital of culture and taste. Most of what we know as modern day Parisian aesthetic is almost exclusively Jeanne Antoinette’s doing.
While Aspasia and Jeanne Antoinette are less recognizable compared to their male counterparts, their stories prove that women were not only present, but instrumental in human history. Even though we still have a way to go, knowing that they managed to change the course of history while living in times far more trying than our own gives me hope that we are capable of doing the same.
