How successful was the French Revolution in terms of equality if women still had no rights at all?Napoleon '' Nature has made women our slaves!'' where is equality in this statement?

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pohnpei397 | College Teacher | (Level 3) Distinguished Educator

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You are right that this statement does not reflect equality and neither does the general record of the French Revolution towards women.  However, I would argue that it is important to look at this in the context of the times.  The American Revolution did not provide equality to women or non-whites.  But that does not mean that these revolutions did not advance the idea of equality.

The revolutions started from a point where there was extreme inequality.  In France, there was the division between the three estates with the commoners having so little political power and few rights.  The French Revolution really did improve that.  It did not make things perfect by any means.  But it did provide much more equality than there had been before.

So, the French Revolution was quite successful in bringing about equality, but only for men.

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