Enlightenment Ideals,The French Revolution & Women

Human rights shouldn't have to be bought, earned or even fought for; they belong to people simply because they are born. They are the same for everyone, regardless of ethnicity, gender, religion or political view, we are all born free. Therefore, human rights are universal. As T.H. Marshall put it, and I agree, human rights can be divided into three categories, or evolutions. First are civil rights. These include life, liberty and that all are born free. This first wave of rights also includes freedom of religion, opinion, assembly and other things of this nature. Second are political rights. Third, are social or human rights. This is about the right to equal education, the right to health care, the right to work etc. Further, all of humanity has the responsibility to respect others natural, human rights.Obviously in the course of history, and even today, this is not always respected. 
The Enlightenment ideals of “natural rights” led to questions about whose “nature” or “whose God” determines these human rights. At the time of the French Revolution, there was much division regarding the rights of slaves, the poor and women. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789 was approved by the National Assembly, a restructuring of the Estates General called by Louis XVI. The Declaration recognized basic human rights as belonging only to citizens who were male. In response to this, groups of women's rights supporters started a campaign for women's rights (Hunt 27). In 1790, Nicolas de Condorcet argued that human rights are universal, and should be extended to women (Doc 34). Etta Palm d’Aelders (Doc 35) also petitioned the National Assembly for civil and political rights for women. When the French Revolution didn't bring about acknowledgment of women's rights,  Olympe de Gouges published the Declaration of the Rights of Women and Female Citizen in 1791. She modeled her declaration on the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, took each article the national assembly pronounced and rewrote it to include women. It follows the 17 articles point for point. For example, the first article declares "men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be based only on common utility" (Doc 14). The First Article of the Declaration of Rights of Women and Female Citizen reads, "Woman is born free and remained equal to man in rights. Social distinctions may only be based on common utility" (Doc 36).For her views, and daring to speak out, she along with other female activists suffered abuse from the government (Hunt 27). 
The prevailing attitude, was to denounce women's political activism. Pierre Gaspard Chaumette , who denounced slavery, did not include women in his view of political rights. He called those women seeking these basic human rights, "Viragos [noisy, domineering; Amazons]" and said they were “denatured women" seeking to "soil this line of liberty… and were “shameless" (Doc 40). The documents exemplify the way the French Revolution treated women. Most of these women activists were arrested, however Gouges was sent to the guillotine in 1793 ( Hunt 27). It would take women another 150 years to win equal rights. The grounds? “Nature” as Chaumette made clear (Wright, Lecture 4, & Doc 40).

Work Cited:

Chaumette, Pierre Gaspard, Speech at the General Council of the City Government of Paris Denouncing Women’s Political Activism November 17, 1793(Document 40)

Condorcet, On the Admission of Women to the Rights of Citizenship, July 1790 (Document 34)

D’Aelders, Etta Palm, Discourse on the Injustice of the Laws in Favor of Men, at the Expense of Women, December 30, 1790 (Document 35)

Declaration of the rights of Man and Citizen August 26, 1789 (Document 14)

De Gouges, Olympe, Declaration of the Rights of Women, September 1791 (Document 36)

Hunt, Lynn. The French Revolution and Human Rights. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1996.