Summary Of Revolutionary Backlash By Rosemarie Zagarri

The American Revolution was a political upheaval that brought many changes to America by greatly altering the popular understanding of women’s partisan status and creating a widespread debate over the meaning of women’s rights. White women had large, essential roles in America’s victory in the American Revolution creating new opportunities for women to participate in politics and support different parties. Women were able to take advantage of these opportunities until a conservative backlash developed by 1830 that stopped any political advancement of women. In Rosemarie Zagarri’s book, Revolutionary Backlash, the author talks about the many things that played a part in causing a backlash against women in the early republic starting when women’s

Just a few decades after women were seen as having close equal capacities to men, women were rejected as political equals and even participants with men. Once the era of democratization for men began, the political possibilities for women dropped off considerably from the point they were at during the Enlightenment and post American Revolution. There was a backlash against white women in the early republic because men started to fear that women would challenge for their power, avoid partisanship causing civil war, and maintain universal male suffrage producing a narrowing of political possibilities for women. One reason why there was a backlash against white women in the early republic is because men feared of a future where women were a challenge to male power by becoming independent and less subordinate. If women continued to gain power and independence then the fabric of society would disintegrate and gender relations would be altered, which men did not want to happen. Americans had a choice of keeping the practices and ideals of the revolution concerning women or maintain the social