Parallel to the revolt of poor, unemployed and starving peasants and workers in many European countries in the year 1848, a revolution led by the educated middle classes was underway. Events of February 1848 in France had brought about the addiction of the monarch and a republic based on universal male suffrage had been proclaimed. In other parts of Europe where independent nation states did not exist such as Germany, Italy, Poland, the Austro- Hungarian Empire men and women of the liberal middle classes combined their demands for constitutionalism with national unification.
(i) The issue of extending political rights to women was a controversial one within the liberal movement, in which large number of women had participated actively over the years.
(ii) Women had focused their own political associations, founded newspaper and taken part in political meetings and demonstrations. (iii) Despite this, they were denied suffrage rights during the elections of assembly.
(iv) When the Frankfurt Parliament was held in Church of St. Paul’s, women were admitted only as observers to stand in visitors’ gallery.
