Machiavelli and the significance of gender

A core component of Niccolo Machiavelli's work is the continual struggle he sees in finding and maintaining individual and state power. The aim of this thesis is to establish an alternate reading of Machiavelli to that provided by Hanna Fenichel Pitkin's Fortune Is a Woman = Gender and Politics in the Thought of Niccolo Machiavelli. Pitkin's reading of Machiavelli's political thought is generated through historical, psychological, social, and textual analysis of his treatment of women. I consider Pitkin's interpretation to be controversial since, in part, she claims Machiavelli's misogyny is based on his confused understanding of autonomy. According to Pitkin, Machiavelli's search for autonomy is grounded in the search for what it is to be male. In explicating this confusing condition, of autonomy defined as male virtue, she focuses on the elements of violence and resentment in Machiavelli's conception of women both as characters and as a metaphor for fortune. Quentin Skinner has found favor in Pitkin's study, however he argues that Pitkin has placed too much emphasis on the historical aspects of Renaissance life, specifically placing too great a focus on its patriarchal attitudes. What Skinner suggests, and what I pursue, is the question of whether or not Machiavelli's political theory can be best understood as working out and a praising of male virsu Throughout his work there is significant emphasis placed on specific ideals that should be pursued, various virtuous qualities that should be sought after, that are frequently presented as feminine. Like Skinner, I suggest that there is merit to Pitkin's vision of Machiavelli, where politics meets gender. However, not all of Machiavelli's vision and version of women and politics is clouded by or hidden under the cloak of misogyny. Skinner's suggestion to extend the analysis allows, as I shall show, consideration in Machiavelli's work of non-hostile aspects of women: adaptability, autonomy, dependence and even power as these are found in Mandragola and in The Prince. A critical examination of Pitkin's argument suggests that Machiavelli may have been trying to restore a balancing that exists between individuals and their regimes. 'An extension of Pitkin's thesis, without misogyny as the defining core, uncovers a subtler process of politics. This contention, I will show, requires a broader interpretation of Machiavelli's ideas found in Mandragola and The Prince, This endeavor may extend our understanding of Machiavelli's politics.