AP Euro
DBQ 9
Pg A-34

The French Revolution

The ideas and objectives of the lower class and women, who participated in the French Revolution, remained the same throughout that period of time. Whilst the nobility craved to over throw the monarchy but wanted to retain their power. Therefore after King Louis XVI was executed the upper class educated men wanted to take power. Women, like the third estate, wanted equality. They wanted the same rights men had in everything, such as: coeducation, the right to vote, to be economically independent, to be able to own a business or land, and to be able to enter politics. Women activists like Olympe de Gouges and Mary Wollstonecraft wrote to express their revolutionary ideas for women. They both wrote two books: one was about the rights men had and how they were made out to always be superior to women. The other would be about the rights of women and how they were unjust, because women should be considered equal to men. During the second revolution under the Reign of Terror in October 1793, months after the King was executed, the National Convention declared anything a women did outside of her home was not her proper place, so they made any women clubs or societies prohibited. In November Olympe de Gouges was sent to the guillotine. Women were not giving what they wanted but they fought for it throughout the entirety of the revolution.

The third estate wanted equalization in taxation and power. The nobility weren’t getting taxed and if they were is wasn’t very much at all; While the lower class where getting taxed more than they could afford. The third estate was happy with the revolution in its beginnings but as the higher-ups tried to gain