Why was it that women began to demand more political rights in the 19th century?

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Shradha Patel

11S.4

Why was it that women began to demand more political rights in the 19th century?

The demand for the rights of women in the late eighteenth century provided the basis and the framework for modern feminism. In Britain its emergence was closely bound up with the broad range of social and economic changes brought by industrialization and urbanization in the later eighteenth century, the expansion in wealth and power of the middle class, and the new emphasis on individualism and economic independence which accompanied it. Although, I believe it was the political upheaval of the French Revolution and the debates about political rights as well as citizenship which surrounded it that brought the first extensive discussion of women's emancipation, the central concern of modern feminism.

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Although it may be said that there were no significant feminist developments in the 19th century, it can be argued that some of the most important ideas were discovered in this period, which has a knock on effect to the outcome of female suffrage. I believe the intense debate about the nature of women, marriage, and family life, and the increasing emphasis on moral capacities of women. This would raise questions about the nature and the situation of women. This discussion that made the role of women, at this time would have offered a redefinition of 'womanhood' which would ...

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