AP EUROPEAN HISTORY

2010 SCORING GUIDELINES (Form B)

Question 3
Assess the ways in which women participated in and influenced TWO of the following:
the Renaissance; the Reformation; the French Revolution.
98 Points
The essay provides a sophisticated thesis that addresses TWO historical periods and addresses
either participation OR influence.
The organization is clear.
The essay is well balanced and deals with TWO historical periods and TWO ways women either
participated in OR influenced each period. This might be a combination of ONE way they
participated in and ONE way they influenced the period, for a total of TWO.
All major assertions are supported by MULTIPLE pieces of relevant evidence.
The essay may contain minor errors.
76 Points
The essay provides a good thesis that addresses TWO historical periods and addresses either
participation OR influences.
The organization is clear.
The essay is well balanced and deals with TWO historical periods and ONE way women either
participated in OR influenced each period.
Assertions are supported by at least TWO pieces of evidence.
The essay may contain minor errors.
54 Points
The essay provides an adequate thesis that is clearly stated but uneven OR the thesis restates the
question.
The organization is unbalanced and not necessarily effective. The essay tends to focus just on the
Reformation OR just on the Renaissance OR just on the French Revolution.
Major assertions are supported by at least ONE piece of evidence.
The essay tends to read as factual narrative with little analysis.
The essay may contain minor errors.
32 Points
The essay provides no thesis or just restates the question.
The organization is unclear and ineffective.
The essay shows serious imbalance.
Statements are superficial, vague and general.
There is little historical proof or evidence.
The essay may contain several errors that detract from the argument.
10 Points
The essay provides no thesis.
The organization is poor.
The essay is off task and irrelevant.
There is little or no supporting evidence.
The essay contains major errors.

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AP EUROPEAN HISTORY
2010 SCORING GUIDELINES (Form B)
Question 3 Historical Background Notes
This question is enormously challenging. Because of the topic, students will react to the prompt more in
general themes than with specific pieces of evidence. Although all the major texts discuss women in these
three periods, the context tends to be more comparative, addressing the change of relative themes over
time. Students must deal with TWO periods in a balanced fashion.
General theme for the Renaissance:
Though hardly the majority of the female population, well-to-do girls in the cities of the Renaissance Italy
received an education similar to boys. Renaissance humanism represented a real educational advance for
aristocratic women. Young ladies learned their letters and studied the classics. Many read Greek and
Latin, knew the poets Ovid and Virgil, and could speak one or two modern languages such as French or
Spanish. Although Renaissance aristocratic women were better educated than their medieval
counterparts, their educations prepared them for the social life at home. A notable feature of smaller
Renaissance courts was the important role played by women who often ruled side by side with their
husbands. If, however, the Renaissance is often said to have discovered mankind in general, this meant for
the most part, men. The Church still considered women to be sinful daughters of Eve. Because of strict
gender divisions within the Church and within Renaissance society, women could not aspire to holiness
and sainthood. The Renaissance did not bring about any significant loosening in the restrictions placed on
women. For this reason, womens contributions during the Renaissance tended to be the exception rather
than the rule. A tiny minority of women among humanists acquired great learning and fame. For example,
in the later 16th century at least 25 women published books in Italy.

Christine de Pisan (13631434) a highly educated woman who wrote prolifically in French, her
native language. Her patron was the queen of France. Christine wrote The Book of the City of Ladies,
which focuses not on the behavior of all French women, but just on women of the Court.
Sofonisba Anguissola (15301625) and Artemisia Gentileschi (15931653) achieved international
renown for their oil paintings.
Isabella Andreini (15621604) enjoyed the reputation as the most famous actress of her day.
Laura Creta (14691499) a famous Italian humanist educated by her father. She was known for her
scathing letters addressing the status of women in her own society. She argued that womens
inferiority was derived not from God but from women themselves. Cretas provocative thesis earned
her the wrath of men and women alike. Her most famous work was Defense of the Liberal Instruction of
Women, widely attacked by the Italian clergy.

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AP EUROPEAN HISTORY
2010 SCORING GUIDELINES (Form B)
Question 3 Historical Background Notes (continued)

Isabella dEstes (14741539) famous for her passionate quest to assemble the best artists of Italy,
including painters, poets and musicians. She was called the first lady of the world. DEstes pursued
both Bellini and Leonardo da Vinci. Her numerous letters to friends, family, princes and artists all over
Europe reveal her political savvy as well as her good sense of humor. Both before and after the death of
her husband, she effectively ruled Mantua and won a reputation as a clever negotiator.
Battista Sforza (14421482) second wife of the famous condottiere Federigo da Montefeltro, the
duke of Urbino. Because her husband was frequently absent waging wars, Sforza often ruled Urbino
with firmness and good sense.

General theme for the Reformation:

Overall the Protestant Reformation did not noticeably transform womens subordinate place in society.
Because Protestantism had eliminated any idea of special holiness for celibacy, abolishing both
monasticism and a celibate clergy, the family was placed at the center of human life, and a new stress on
mutual love between man and wife was extolled. Luthers argument that all vocations had equal merit in
the sight of God gave dignity to the women of the home who performed ordinary, routine and domestic
tasks. The Christian home, in contrast to the place of business, became the place of the gentler virtues:
love, tenderness, reconciliation, the carrying of one anothers burdens. The Protestant abolition of private
confession to a priest freed women from possibly embarrassing explorations of their sexual lives.
Protestants established schools where girls as well as boys became literate in the catechism and the Bible.
Luther was confident that God took delight in the sexual act and denied that original sin affected the
goodness of creation. That being said, however, he believed that marriage was a womans career. In their
effort to create order and discipline, Protestant reformers denounced sexual immorality and glorified the
family. Calvins earliest significant converts were women, whose patronage helped his faith take root at
the highest levels of society. More women than men converted to Calvinism in France, perhaps because
their legal position was deteriorating for example, with regard to their dowries and possessions. On a
darker note, women became unwilling participants in the great witch hunts during the Reformation. Most
women who were accused of being witches were rural, poor, and single; many had just inherited property.
They often confronted the hostility of other villagers, particularly local officials and wealthy peasants.
Women were also targets of repression during the Reformation because they were transmitters of the
collective memory of popular culture. For centuries the Catholic hierarchy had regarded women as the
source of sin, a notion that remained popular even as the great reformers were changing European faith.

Catherine of Aragon (1529) instrumental in sparking the beginning of the English Reformation,
generating the debate for papal dispensation from the biblical law that prohibited a union between a
man and his brothers widow.
Elizabeth Dirks (1549) interrogated in the Netherlands for her role in advocating gender equality,
especially in the realm of church roles and the interpretation of Holy Scripture.
Katharina Zell (1534) wife of the Strasbourg reformer Matthew Zell who defended her gender
equality by citing a Bible verse to attack a critic who demanded that women remain silent in church.
Katharina von Bora (1525) wife of Martin Luther who gave her husband complete devotion and
support during his crusade to reform the Church. Von Bora was Luthers model for the perfect wife
managing the house and home.

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AP EUROPEAN HISTORY
2010 SCORING GUIDELINES (Form B)
Question 3 Historical Background Notes (continued)
General theme for the French Revolution:
A perplexing question arose from the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of September
1789: Whom did the Declaration mean by man and citizen? The laws that excluded women from voting
and holding office did not pass unnoticed. In 1791 Olympe de Gouges, a butchers daughter from
Montauban in northwest France who became a major revolutionary radical in Paris, composed a
Declaration of the Rights of Women, which she ironically addressed to Queen Marie-Antoinette. Much of
the document reprinted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, adding the word woman
to the various original clauses. De Gouges declaration illustrated how the simple listing of rights in the
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen created a structure of universal civic expectations even
for those it did not cover. In unprecedented numbers, women took up the pen to publish pamphlets and
journals. Their physical presence in public spaces was even more dramatic. Despite the importance of
women to the revolutionary cause, male revolutionaries, especially the Jacobin radicals, reacted
disdainfully to female participation in political activity. This was especially true during the radical phase of
the revolution with the destruction of the Girondin moderates after 1793. With the onset of the Terror in
17931794, the Convention and later the Committee for Public Safety turned on the women of Paris.
Women demanding radical change were labeled as public enemies and counterrevolutionary. The lofty
ideals of de Gouges were simply too radical for the Jacobin ruling elite, committed to security and the
maintenance of political power.

Marianne female icon who became the symbol of the Revolution and the Republic. Since la libert is
a feminine term in French, liberty and the ideals associated with the revolution were often associated
with female virtues.
Marie-Antoinette (17531793) the public disdain for Louis XVIs unpopular wife galvanized public
opinion against the Bourbon monarchy. She was guillotined in 1793 as an unwilling participant in the
French Revolution.
October 1789 Womens March to Versailles demanding a lowering of bread prices. The female mob
returned to Paris with the king and the royal family.
Olympe de Gouges (17891793) wrote The Declaration of the Rights of Women in 1791; guillotined
in 1793 by the radical Jacobins intent on maintaining social control.
Charlotte Corday (July 1793) Girondin moderate who assassinated Marat and was guillotined by the
Jacobins in July 1793.
Pauline Lon and Claire Lacombe founded the Society of Revolutionary Republican Women in May,
1793. The society became ultraradical, demanding the lowering of food prices and hunger relief for the
poor of Paris. It was shut down by the Jacobins in October 1793, resulting in the arrest and
imprisonment of both of its founders. Both remained in Jacobin jails throughout 1794, and both
survived their ordeals.

2010 The College Board.

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 2010 The College Board.

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 2010 The College Board.

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 2010 The College Board.

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 2010 The College Board.

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 2010 The College Board.

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 2010 The College Board.

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 2010 The College Board.

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AP EUROPEAN HISTORY
2010 SCORING COMMENTARY (Form B)
Question 3
Sample: 3A
Score: 7
This essay provides a strong thesis. It deals with both the Renaissance and the Reformation. It includes
multiple Renaissance examples and describes one way in which women participated in and influenced the
French Revolution. The examples provided for the French Revolution are good. The essay did not earn a
higher score because the question asked for two examples of womens influence and participation in both
of the periods. It earned a score of 7, however, because essays that earned 6 points usually included only
one example of influence and participation, while this essay has two for the Renaissance and one for the
French Revolution.
Sample: 3B
Score: 5
The thesis finally appears in the conclusion of this essay. The essay deals with both the Renaissance and
the Reformation. It never articulates ways in which women participated in and influenced the
Renaissance, although it does provide good examples for the Renaissance. The essay does not follow the
question directions in the discussion of the French Revolution. The essay earned a score of 5 because it
does not discuss the influence or participation of women in both periods. However, it alludes to the
influence and participation of women in both periods and includes solid examples.
Sample: 3C
Score: 3
The thesis of this essay does not address the question. It does deal with both the Renaissance and the
French Revolution. However, there are major interpretive problems in the Renaissance discussion. The
essay never states the influence and participation or both of women in either period. It does include one
solid example of womens role during the French Revolution. The point about Marie-Antoinette, however,
is not clear. The Enlightenment discussion is irrelevant and off task. There are too many major mistakes
and the writing is too simplistic to merit a score of 4.

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