ABSTRACT
The Revolutionary era saw a flowering of arguments for rights for women. This volume opened with two, Olympe de Gouges and Mary Wollstonecraft, while others also sprang to defend women – and to challenge them. Condorcet went further than most in claiming women’s right to be voters and representatives. Dutchwoman Etta Palm D’Ælders was just one of the outspoken women who claimed rights not only as women but also as citizens to take part in government and in the defence of the Revolution by taking up arms. The third extract represents only one of the many cahiers, or grievances, lodged with the new Republican government. Although the author begins by asking for suffrage, other claims are drawn out in her brief but pointed missive. The final two extracts reflect on the reception of Wollstonecraft’s work, in Italy, where Elisabeth Camina Turra found common ground with her, and in her obituary by the conservative Gentleman’s Magazine, which grudgingly gave credit to her abilities, if not her ideas.
