In what ways have different historians, whose work we have read this week, analyzed women’s agency? How do such studies challenge orthodox understandings of what it means to resist tyranny and/or oppression? How do they change the master narrative of the Age of Revolutions?

In the podcast “Women in the Early Republic,” Allgor argues that many women found their participation in the American Revolution to be a liberating experience. However, Allgor also admits that the Revolution did not change radically women’s status. Given these arguments, and those of the other texts we read this week, do you think there was there an “Age of Revolutions” for women? In what ways did women’s position in society change during the time under examination? In what ways did their roles stay the same?

This week we read two primary sources: a letter written by Abigail Adams to her husband, John Adams, and letter written by Olympe de Gouges to the Queen of France. What similarities exist between the two letters? What can we gather from these two letters about women’s social position during the American and French Revolutions? What do they tell us about women’s participation in and expectations for their respective Revolutions?