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Josefa Amar y Borbón (Zaragoza 1749-1833) was an Enlightenment educator, writer and translator. As an essayist, she focused her work on defending the capacity of women in intellectual, political and managerial activities, which generated controversy in her time.
She was baptized in the church of San Miguel de los Navarros in Zaragoza. Her father, José Amar y Arguedas, was Fernando VI's chamber physician.
She received a solid humanistic training from Rafael Casalbón and Antonio Berdejo, becoming fluent in Latin, Greek and several modern languages that would serve her work as a translator.
In 1782 she joined the Royal Aragonese Economic Society of Friends of the Country, in which she was the first woman. She and, in 1787, she in the Board of Ladies of Honor and Merit of Madrid.
His public activity was very intense since he joined these societies, collaborating both in training, welfare and charity projects, as well as in intellectual, political and management activities.
She does not want to change society, but instead proposes an education for women that makes them more useful and effective, as well as being happy themselves.
The family environment in which he was brought up may have had a significant influence on the later development of his intellectual attitudes.
His maternal great-grandfather, Felipe Borbón from Zaragoza, author of Domestic Medicine, was a famous doctor and university professor.
His father, born in Borja (Zaragoza) in 1715, held the Chair of Anatomy from 1743. He was also Professor of Aphorisms until 1754 and Royal Physician for Fernando VI.
The work performed by its two preceptors was very important. Rafarel Casalbón, an eminent Hellenist, was the royal librarian, and Antonio Berdejo, a presbyter, an expert in classical languages and a member of the Aragonese Economic Society.
He knew all the work of the French Enlightenment and ideologues and that of John Locke. His thinking went from an advanced Enlightenment to a convinced liberalism.
One of his occupations was the translation of foreign works, mostly scientific. Between 1782 and 1784 he translated annotated the six volumes of the Historical-Apologetic Essay of Spanish Literature against the concerned opinions of some modern Italian writers. For this translation she was named a member of merit of the Aragonese Economic Society, with the same consideration as any member.
Since 1787 she belonged to the Board of Ladies of Madrid, which created controversy. In it she participated with her speech in defense of women's talent.
"No one who is moderately educated will deny that at all times and in all countries there have been women who have made progress even in the most abstract sciences. Their literary history can always accompany that of men because, when they have flourished in letters , have had companions and imitators in the other sex".
In the Royal Aragonese Economic Society of Friends of the Country, she defended the independence and dignity of women, through the translation of one of the most famous European books on the subject, that of Vicesimus Knox, Essays, Moral and Literary of 1778, and of various speeches he wrote and delivered between 1786 and 1790: Speech in defense of women's talent (1786), Gratulatory Prayer to the Board of Ladies (1787) and Speech on the physical and moral education of women (1790).
In all of these, she defends the feminism of equality: the brain has no sex and the aptitude of women to perform any political or social function is exactly the same, by nature, as that of men. If there is any difference, it is due to education.
His Discourse on the physical and moral education of women is divided into two parts, one on physical education and the other on morality.
Physical education is dedicated to medical and hygienic issues. The main theme of morality is learning grammar, geography, history and arithmetic, as well as languages, both modern and classical.
Published in 1790, it is preceded by a quote from Xenophon:
"Good education teaches to make good use of the Laws, and to speak of what is fair, and to listen."
The first part consists of eight chapters and is a medical-hygienist discourse on the education of the body. That same year she was accepted as an honorary member of the Barcelona Medical Society.
It deals with the care related to pregnancy, childbirth, lactation, raising and feeding children, as well as "the way of life that should be taught to girls".
The second part, more extensive, is 17 chapters. The latter is an annotated bibliography of works on education from Plato to his contemporaries.
For her, "virtue must be taught more by examples than by precepts" and a distinction must be made between "superstition" and intimate and sincere devotion". She also defends the reading of the Bible without intermediaries, proposes Erasmian authors and insists on austerity and control of passions
