Jean-Jacques Rousseau's The Social Contract And The Declaration Of The Rights Of Women

The Age of Revolutions was a period from approximately 1776 to 1848 that greatly changed the world and how it runs. During this period, the old monarchies began to weaken and new governments, built on constitutions by the people, began to rise. Many important texts and ideas came about during, or greatly influenced, this period in history. Two such texts are Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s The Social Contract, and The Declaration of the Rights of Man, along with its sister text, The Declaration of the Rights of Women. Both of these texts played some role in the French Revolution, and had much to say on topics such as human nature and the meaning of freedom.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was one of the most influential philosophers of the 18th century. His texts were banned in some nations, most notably France, but they were still widely read and deeply influenced European thought ( Reader 493). One of his most influential texts was The Social Contract, which goes into what Rousseau thought to be the best way to build a political community. In the text, Rousseau details a government wholly of the people with each individual giving of themselves and serving the general will, and receiving all as an inseparable part of the community.

Both the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and that of Man assign freedom and the associated rights as inalienable, almost as if it is human nature to have such, nevertheless one excludes the other from said rights. That is to say, that the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen wholly excludes women from the rights it lays out. Women still must follow the laws, and can be persecuted by the law, but have not the same rights of men to participate in government. This is due to the fact that, despite the great revolution, women are condemned to forever be second class