The Enlightenment as a social and intellectual movement impacted many segments of society. How did this movement affect women in the elite and common classes during the revolutions?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

ANSWER:
In England, educated middle-class women purchased and discussed the books and pamphlets of the era. Some also contributed to the era's intellectual life by raising the issue of the rights of women. In Paris, wealthy women made their homes centers of debate, intellectual speculation, and free inquiry. Their salons brought together philosophers, social critics, artists, and members of the aristocracy and commercial elite. Women were powerfully affected by their participation in revolutionary politics, which in part resulted from Enlightenment thinking. Before the American Revolution women led boycotts, and during the war they organized relief and charitable organizations. Nevertheless, they were denied political rights in the new republic. During the French Revolution, working-class and poor women were particularly affected by the prewar economic crises. French women faced the difficulties of feeding their families while facing high bread prices, and they were also affected by the economic depression, which hit garment and other small businesses hard. Market women organized a crowd of thousands to march to Versailles. Once there, they forced their way into the National Assembly to demand action. Therefore, the Enlightenment impacted women of both the elite and the poorer classes. Women of the elite participated in the debates and dissemination of Enlightenment thought, whereas poor women took Enlightenment inspiration to organize protests and boycotts. Unfortunately, their interest and participation were not recognized by their governments in the aftermath of the revolutions. Both elite and common women remain disenfranchised by the new constitutional governments in France and the United States until the twentieth century.