Equality During The French Revolution

However, the revolution didn’t encourage both sexes to reevaluate the women’s right. It very little changed happen women still had the same basic rights like before. However, Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams, became an early supporter of women's rights when she prompted her husband to "REMEMBER THE LADIES" when starting up a new government. Even though Adams passed a new law that protects some women from bad husband this new law did not protect the single women. Also, women need and wanted to have the same right as men. Women have the same capacity and the same intellectual as men, there is no difference. The only difference between women and men that men have access to education and have more power than women before the American Revolution, this changed after women started to realize that they could have the same rights as men. Furthermore, American women deserve to have the same right. If the republic were to succeed, women must be educated in quality so they could teach their children how

Social Inequality was a major contribution to the nature of the French Revolution. Social unrest was rampant between the three estates due to the major gap between the classes. While the clergy made up half of a percent of the population, they owned ten percent of the land. The nobles held thirty percent of the land, while only making up one percent of the population. Meanwhile, the peasants were the majority, oppressed by the government and forced to pay all of the taxes, despite the income inequality.

     The revolution also changes the status of women in the 15 years following the American Revolution. There was a push to allow for better women’s education. In 1789, Massachusetts passed a law insisting elementary schools be open to both girls and boys. Girls from rich families had the ability to receive a good education on subjects including math, history and geography. A large advocate of women’s education was Judith Sargent Murray, who argued men and women had equal intellectual abilities, but women’s lack of chances is what made them appear inferior. Abigail Adams, the wife of John Adams, also called for legal reform in order to prevent male tyranny over women. Some even went further and called for the right of women to vote. This was still denied to women, however, and it would not be over 100 years later until they were granted this right. Despite some small advances for women’s rights, there was still a notion of inferiority to men.

Women generally did not fight in the revolution, and the traditional status of Eighteenth Century women meant that they were not publicly able to participate fully in the debates over the revolution. However, in their own sphere, and sometimes out of it, woman participated fully in the revolution in all the ways that their status and custom allowed.

Part A: Women participated in almost every aspect of the French Revolution. This investigation will answer the question, to what extent did women contribute to the French Revolution? This question is important because the choices of the women during this time still leads a major impact of history even today. The scope of this investigation was The French Revolution during a period of time between the years 1787 to 1799, and was known to be a very controversial time period in the history of France.

Beginning in 1789, the French Revolution was a time of rebellion, passion, betrayal, death, violence, and perseverance. Before 1789, King Louis XVI was taxing his poorest people heavily, whilst the rich were hardly taxed at all. The socioeconomic system in place at the time, known as the ancien regime, ruthlessly upheld the status quo. When the tension in France rose to a boiling point, fiery, young rebels to rose up against the Monarchy, the Ancien Regime, and the Clergy. These revolutionaries desperately wanted change, and they had three main principles around which their movement centered: Liberté, Égalité, and Fraternité. Liberty is the freedom to do as one pleases so long as one’s actions do not unjustifiably harm others. Equality is being considered the same. Fraternity is a sense of brotherhood and companionship. The goals of the French Revolution were initially achieved with alacrity, however they were abandoned with relative quickness as malcontented leaders quested for, and abused, power and authority.

Historians once presumed that, since women during the American Revolution had limited or no political decisions, and demonstrated little concern in achieving the franchise, they were fundamentally apolitical members of the society. In the modern world, scholars acknowledge the fact that women played a leading role during the war and they were actively involved in debates, which accompanied the movement towards independence, and that the war expanded their territories in their political and legal roles. Furthermore, the male welcomed women’s support during the war that was a very instrumental move towards the expansion of the women’s roles in the society unlike in the past when women were restricted to household chores. As women filled important roles because of the shortage of men to fill these roles, like managing business and farms, the idea that females were lesser than males started to fade away (Bielich, 2008). The laws prior to and during the revolution did not acknowledge females as equal to men in

As the saying goes, “a woman’s work is never done,” but today’s women live a far different life than their predecessors. The women of the revolution were courageous and brave-hearted. The obstacles of their time were far more difficult to overcome than those faced by women in this day and age. Whether it was slavery, war, or racial prejudice, these women kept their heads held high and worked to break down these barriers and create change for the future. On top of having to deal with these hardships, the women of the revolution had families to take care of, mouths to feed, houses to clean, and wounds to heal. For many women of the revolution it was all about taking a stand for their rights and being

Prior to the revolution, women were expected to care for the children, serve their husbands and had domestic roles. During the time period of 1775 to 1800, women had a role in the revolution. Document A expresses the idea that not only all men, but all women were expected to take part in this revolution. The woman is shown as a patriot, which gives the idea that during that time, women were equal to men at the time of the revolution because it required help from both women and men. While the Americans decided to boycott all British goods, women had to provide the products that were previously given to them by Britain. While their husbands were at battle during the revolution, women had to take care of the farms and businesses, as well caring for the children. By nature, women were nurturing and caring for the family and taking care of homelife. How women viewed their responsibilities changed, especially in the late 1790s. Document J shows how women believed that they had rights and freedoms. They believed that if they had the ability to read and write and were permitted education, that they should also be granted the freedom of speech. During this time women wanted the opportunity to speak up and not be subjected to only caring for the family. This freedom granted women with greater roles which they did not have prior to the

The revolutionary war brought many struggles to the lives of many women. Many of these women were known as Red-Coats while others actually fought in the war. Most of these women took small steps towards freedom, some were achieved, but they were still considered inferior to men. There is another way in which the general opinion, that women are inferior to men, is manifested, that bears with tremendous effect on the laboring class, and indeed on almost all who are obligate to earn a subsistence, whether it be by mental or physical exertion—I allude to the disproportionate value set on the time and labor of men and of women. (Doc 8-8 Grimke) Even though many of these women have helped change standing in society by inspiring other women, it has helped them obtain equal rights in the 1920s.

Kreber notes that women played a number of key roles during the revolution including participating in various boycotts, enforcement of economic norms, nursing, or even the production of clothing for soldiers1. These positions were often needed but were not exulted because of the women filling these roles. This is what led Kreber to investigate the role of female patriotism in the revolution2. Kreber says that the revolution changed the minds of women in the Early Republic. She said that the Revolution argued for women's rights due to its claims of equality and freedom.3 Since women were actively allowed to participate in political and war-time activities, it created a spark for change in the woman's role. These activities gave women a new meaning to the word equality amongst their superior male counterparts. For the first time, women began to challenge the status quo of being confined to house life. Kreber describes the four major areas that women were effected by as a result of the revolution were womien education, derture, divorce, and reading4. These were the four biggest areas because women wanted to be like men. These were all areas men prided themselves in. Education was heavily constricted because of the belief of the woman's place in the home. Kreber says “even a contemporary women's magazine warned, learning in men was the road to preferment...consequently very opposite were the results of the same in women5.” Kreber saw the limitations on education as the

In the 1700's there was social unfairness in France. Taxes and laws were different in each area of control/area of land causing confusion and terribly unfair treatment. Louis XIV and Louis XV both left big (money owed) when they died, and this made France almost out of money to pay bills. The (priests, bishops, deacons, etc.) and kings and queens had plenty of money but the king couldn't tax the wealthy. Louis XVI asked the First and Second Huge houses to accept a land tax, but they refused. In 1789, the country was in need of money and almost completely

The French Revolution brought with it many sweeping changes in the realm of human rights both to France and eventually the rest of the world. Through Enlightenment ideas, groups previously viewed as second-class citizens, and even those viewed as hardly human, gained greatly enhanced rights and even citizenship with all that this entailed. Amazingly with all the rights and privileges that were being recognized as inherent to various social groups, half the population was left with little or no improvement in their station. This, of course, refers to women. While there were those who fought for women's rights, such as Condorcet, Etta Palm D'Aelders, and Olympe De Gouges; these

Throughout much of history, women’s roles of being dutiful and respectful, quiet ladies guided them into a state of oppression and vulnerability. It was not until the Enlightenment that women began to exceed in different areas, finally beginning to be taken seriously as well as getting recognition for movements that they have been a part of. Up until then, the major role of women was to produce sons that would rise up and take financial care of a household, or daughters that would lead quiet and bashful lives once again repeating what the mother had once learned when she young. However, the fundamental roles of women during the French Revolution varied. There were many women who did not share common experiences and depending on their social class, these women’s involvements in different areas of the Revolution varied significantly.

Equality in government is something that is extremely important and relevant in today’s society, which is why I chose to focus on equal rights in the French Revolution for my research paper. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines equality as “the quality or state of being equal”, I am going to apply this term to government and explain why being equal in government is the best way to avoid conflict, maintain peace, and keep order. I want to focus on equality because it is a topic that is dear to my heart for many reasons and I firmly believe that the lack of equal rights is what fueled the French Revolution and led to the violence and chaos that occured. Due to the Monarchy that the French had at the time, citizens were under a feudal class system that kept their people from being equal in government. This division between classes is just one of the things that aided the violence that occurred during the French Revolution simply because people were not equal. When people are not heard, or feel their opinion is irrelevant, they begin to cause an uproar; for example, King Louis XVI made decisions that affected everyone, but only thought of himself, and didn’t want to hear what his citizens had to say. All the power lied in his hands and that was the problem. No one was represented in government and no power was distributed amongst the people; therefore, people felt they were walked on and that their life was not as important. This is just one example of how inequality led to