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The essay offers an analysis of Catharine Trotter’s defense of John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding, which she published anonymously in 1702, in order to assess how Locke’s theory of personal identity may have legitimized women’s intervention in philosophical debates. The hypothesis under scrutiny here is the following: could the definition of personal identity in terms of consciousness, and no longer in terms of the relations between body and soul, have been interpreted by early modern women as an encouragement to take part in philosophical inquiry? More generally, could it be argued that Locke’s philosophy was seen as favorable to women’s intellectual activity in a patriarchal context? The essay suggests answers to these questions thanks to a comparison of some elements from Locke’s and Descartes’ philosophies.