benjamin franklin and women or, franklin’s women

Reappraising Benjamin Franklin in the context of the politics of his day, this article examines how his supposed questionable reputation with women dates to the time when he ran for the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1764. During that rancorous election, opponents slandered Franklin with scandalous remarks against his character. Franklin’s ideas about women, his writings about them, and his relationships with two kinswomen important to his life—Jane Franklin Mecom and Deborah Read Franklin—form the purview of a re-examination of the ages-old stories about Franklin and women.