This thesis examines the ways in which Mary Wollstonecraft, Hannah More, and Jane Austen claim women's active role in civil society by incorporating gender issues in the male dominated discourses about civil society throughout the eighteenth century. Surveying diverse works of criticism on the writings of the three writers, I argue that their writings were significantly influenced and shaped by moral philosophy and the Revolutionary debates, and that they use the Revolutionary debates as a platform to launch feminist issues. I look into how they probe the works of such prominent moral philosophers as David Hume, Adam Ferguson, and Adam Smith to present their views and legitimize women's civic role. In the post-Revolutionary era, Austen responds to More and Wollstonecraft through her novels Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, and Persuasion expressing her views on forging a role for women in civil society.