‘oe ee wr Feminism in the French Revolution JANE ABRAY French feminism has a long history; its roots Bo back far be tumult of new ideas that mark the Revolution. Since the Renaissance, indeed since the Middle Ages, French women - and men — had argued for equality of legal and political rights fur the sexes. Woman's education, her economic position, and her relationship to her father and husband had all been worked over time after time. In the eighteenth century intellectuals carried on a desultory debate over the status of women. The discussion slowly grew more heared until, in the early years of the Revolution, a small group of bold thinkers demanded changes that, if effected, would have altered the character of French «ivilization far more than did the abolition of the monarchy. yond the Single or married, women had few rights in the law during the last decades of the ancten régime. Their testimony could be a:cepted in criminal and civil courts but not for notarized acts like wills. ia some parts of France a single woman could enter into contractual relationships, bur for the most part her rights - reasonably extensive as late 15 the thirteenth century ~ had atrophied. Generally speaking a single woman remained under her father’s authority until she married; marriage trans- ferred her to her husband's rule. Once married she generally had no control over her person or her property. Only the death of her husband could offer her some prospect of independence. As Robert Joseph Pothier an eighteenth-ceatury legal expert, explained, ‘Our ce stomary law has par women ints such a condition of dependence on their husbands that they can do nothing valid, nothing that the civil law will recognize, unless they have been specifically authorized by their husbands to do it.” Nor was the ~ economic position of eighteenth-century women enviable Although their earnings were vital to the survival of lower-class'families, their wages were very low, The gild offices excluded women, and even the slight modermiza- t justry accomplished before the Revolution tended to worsen their the most part law and custom contined women to domestic Habor, and ill-paid labor-intensive industries like the lace ‘enough, French women did have some political rights open to women, According to the king's summons of the or notes, fram The American [listoreal Kersey, BO (1975), pp $3—t | Eestates-General Women in religious orders and seme noblewomen Geuid g send representatives Moore Papa ah tgp women of the Third bata Hee eulstly widows) managed +4 ParUcinare in some of whe ssi: assemblies, This was the subordinate Position that the tals debated. The great Apres of the Enlightenment Montesgenrer: Voltaire, Rousseau, Condorcet, Urderot, and other Ene yelopédisty contributed to the discussion bot were not its main speakers. From « Bclesel thertencury on a host of now-obscure writers took up thy feminist case: Abbé Joseph-Antoine Youssaint Dinouart, Philippe Floren de Puisieux, Mlle Archambault, Pierre Joseph Cafficux, P Boudier de Villemert, Mme Riccobini, lAntoine-Léonard?} Thomas, and Mdmerde Coicy As advocates of social revolunon this Broup must hy accounted tame. Boudier de Villemert maintained that women ought 1 have ‘a serious daily occupation™and recommended embroidery.” Potential feminists could have found Sterner stuff in the Journal des Dams, monthly magazine. Its editor in 1774, Mme de Montenclos, was an advocate of women’s rights. She eweNy proclaimed, “I am not one a. draw attention to myself, but I swear | de want fo shatter our conventions and guarantee women the justice that men refuse to them as «fon a whim." Many of the opponents of these ambitzons lurked in the vast literature on women’s education Restif de la Bretonne, following the path of Rons- seau’s Emile, ordered that all thought of equality between the sexes he suppressed. Women should be forbidden to learn reading and writig order to limir them to useful domestic labour Mme de Genthis urged swomen’s education be organized to prepare them “for a monoteneny as! dependent life."* While the Supporters of feminisin tended to exalt mar riage and motherhood as a claim on society, the anti-feminists me “natural vocation’ to prove that women should be content te stay home and co obey their husbands. eighteenth cemury intelles terre Joseph ed thas By 1789 conventional wisdoms of all sorts, and even the anlage u oe happy homemaker, had begun to quiver. For in the last yes ol the is as a more militant feminist theory had emerged in a spate $ oan ues " fonger content to make vague statements advocating sat Ba eter of women’s emancipztion got down to specific proposals al i i began to appear 1d political rights. Their brochures ether dager tee ee SMM dei the fest blase of chis trumpet on ret sYRTE not allowed to * : would be justified in dorcer, domestic professions opene Pay their ta ie xes. Morcover, said Con- shared and all poste Berard tare ere and at sexual inequality it ae i of women. A year later aes ue Pas i Property qualifications he ul i » He also. - EUUe suppor worn ke predicted that his ideas acieinene 1 aS they were all too enamored of . ww to listen to him ee lost women ignored the feminists, Yet C Rader leaiRcsn oa sts. Yet Condorcet found some allies. Beem eeNiRenonirnces shine a dulimer de pa, tee , plaintes et é Peereilccsticincke doléances des Dames Fran- ee ae 5 the latter also criticized men for stultify- women’s minds through a too-narrow ed nies pamphlets were concerned primaril rae litical he seen ily with political rights, “We enlightenment a , 3 ele et ind jobs,’ said the women of the Third Estate to the ‘ing, ‘not to usurp men’s auth: Meet i thority, but to rise in their esteem and to 5 means of living safe from misfortune.”* ne ae of the most important of these early pamphlets was Cahier des léances et réclamations des femmes, par Mme B... B.... The anonymous author began by revealing her astonishment that women were not seizing the opportunity to make themselves heard. She described her own conversion to feminism - she had thought women weak and incompetent but now knew better - and asked whether men could con- tinue to make women the victims of their pride and injustice ar a time when the common people were entering into their political rights and when P B P 8 even the blacks were to be free. She insisted that just as a noble could not he Assembly, so a man could nor represent a woman then lashed out at the double standard of sexual d at those of masculinité.© This pamph- er des doléances et réclamations des authority shoul ye 'd to both sexes an w state and not the trad Ondorcet insisted ok ee tari hat EASA represent a roturier int MmeB... B.- morality, at the droits d'ainesse an let reappeared word for word as Cahii Femmes du département de la Charente. ‘Other pamphlets appeared along with a flurry of satites mocking the r feminists’ pretensions. Condorcet contributed another major statement in rene repeated his earlier arguments on beat of women's slag amd caed one of the opposition’ favourite arguments ‘why soul pel “ispositions be barred from the exercise to pregnancy and passing indis ae ee would dream of denying those who have gout or catch cold ° ihiers. The most easily?! ed in the ca osals_appeat 1A very few feminist Prone or improvements in the education of hese was the ap "Poitou) made a unique f Chatellerault | a common of os ‘The Third Estare 0 . according to an equita Me ceaite gzsemblies be consteureet procedure; accordingly. let cinzens of both sexes and of all [qual rights in participating in the debates of the assemblies and in the appointing of deputies.’ Far more ordinary was their sugecstion that pad midwives be provided for the countryside." The drawing up of the culters also prompted comments from interested observers. One set of anon vations sur la redaction des Cahiers de Paris urged that en exercise ‘women’s professions,’ thus assuring women the from ymous Observ be forbidden to means of making their living and consequently keeping them on. Henri Jabineau, a lawyer and abbé, sent thirty turning to prostiruti assembly two articles echoing these themes first to a Parisian electoral and then to the Estates-General.” ‘Once the Estates had met and representative government had begun, the feminists changed their tactics. No longer did they rely on pamphlets and letters to the editor. Instead they took to sending delegations co the ofjtical clubs as platforms. Representations to the National Assembly began very early. In November 1789 the Assem bly received a series of ‘Motions en faveur du sexe’ that attacked the economic subordination of women and the evils of convent life.!° This habit of addressing proposals directly ro the government persisted at least until 1793. Mme Mouret went ro the Assembly in 1790 to present a speech on the need for women's education. Early in 1792 several Parisians of both sexes requested the Assembly to pass a law against despotic paternal and marital power. In April of that year Etta Palm van Aelders, a Dutch feminist, petitioned the Assembly to provide education for girls, to guar antee women’s legal majority at twenty-one, to give both sexes political freedom and equal rights, and to present divorce legislation. The following. summer a woman from the Beaurepaire section {of Paris| addressed the government*and to using the p Convention. slators, you have given men a Constitution; now they rights of free beings, but women are very far {rom Women count for nothing in the political assemblies and, as the Consritution 1s we now demand the full exereise of Citizen legi enjoy all the sharing these glories system. We ask for primary hased on the Rights of Man, these rights for ourselves.'" The president congratulated her deputation for its zeal - and postponed discussion. Such a discussion nught h bhes had their full complement of 4 few advocates of women’s emancipation. sere spoke on the recording of vital starist 1 : victims of their fathers’ despotism and of their Jrusbands’ perfidy” | warned that French law must noc manntain women in a stave of slavery. by the spring of 1793 Pierre Guyomar, from the Cates-du-Nord, ite excited. The assent bur they also contamed etal have proved to be qu antifeminists, In 1792. Aubert-Dubs ics; he called women “the ant presented thjane Aoray Convention with his reflections on political equality. To him the only differences between men and women lay in their reproductive systems, and he could not understand why such physical differences should lead to differences before the law. Like many other contemporary feminists, Guyomar compared sexual to racial discrimination. He spoke, t00, of ‘une aristocratie formelle des hommes."!? Supporters of women’s rights did nor completely abandon their old platforms. Letters to newspapers continued to appear. The founder of the Journal des Droits de I'Homme, a Cordelier named Labenerte, defended the rights of women. A major feminist declaration arrived on the streets of Paris in 1791. Olympe de Gouges, having had enough of the ‘rights of man,’ announced the rights of women. Her text followed closely that of the declaration of August 1789, All women are born free and remain equal to men in rights. . . . The aim of all political associations is the preservation of the natural and inalienable rights of women and men. . . . The nation is the union of women and men. .. . Law is the expression of the general will: all female and male citizens have the right to participate personally, or through their representatives, in its formation. "* De Gouges also demanded equality of opportunity in public employment, the right to paternity suits, and an end to male tyranny generally. The following year Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Women, inspired in part by the Revolution, appeared in a French translation and created some stir. Women also made their presence felt in the great revolutionary journées and in the army, While this activity was not, strictly speaking, feminist, any activity by women in a society that places a premium on female passivity has some feminist overtones. Nor were the implications of their actions lost on the women themselves. In 1789 the women of the Halles were singing: A Versail’ comme des fanfarons Jravions amené nos canons: [bis] Falloit voir, quoi qu’ j"étions qu'des femmes Un courage qui n’faut pas qu’l’on blame. Nous faisions voir aux homm’ de coeur Que rout comme eux j'n'avions pas peur: [bis] Fusil, musquetons sur épaule, Jallions comme Amadis de Gaule.'’ The Etrennes nationales des Dames, a feminist newspaper begun in November 1789, used the same episode to threaten ‘aristocratic hus- that women could just as casily take up arms against them ifFomimsm in the Prench Revolution they persisted in ther pretensions. In January 1794, when the back of fermimism had broken under the weight of public and governmental hosty lity, some women still remembered there old emthusiasme A 4 spY reported on groups of women eager to see Reine Chapuy, a female cavalry soldier. The idea of her daring aroused several of these women ta attack male cowardice and to exalt female courage Most of the people behind this agitarion have left little trace Some of their clubs can be pinned down, a few of the most fambovanr leaders survive as individuals. Of the Paris political clubs the Cercle Socral was the first to advocare feminism. Its members began to hear cadical Wdeas abour women’s place in society in October 1790, both Condorcer and Feta Pain used it as a forum. Several of the Parisian societes populares accepted women: the Club des Indigents, Club des Halles, Club des Nomophules Club des Mimimes, the Société Fraternelle des Jacobins, and thar of the Carmes. Although the Societe Fraternelle des Jacobins, for one, had temale officers, there is no evidence that any of these clubs were directly involved in feminist activities. The same holds true of the provincial women’s clubs in Besangon, Bordeaux, Dijon, Orleans, Strasbourg, and elsewhere. The provincial women’s clubs attracted middle-class women, but in Pans tre rank and file were usually from the lower classes. On the other hand the male feroimsts of whom we have record were generally fairly substancral catizens The feminist leaders about whom cnough 1s known to permit brogr phical sketches were rather a curious crew. Olympe de Gouges bor Marse Goure sn 1748 ~ was a failed playwright whose rovaham and opposition to Kobespierre combined to bring her to the guillonae She relied on brochures, posters, long letters to newspapers, and very unpor- ular plays to spread her message. She had litle enough wntluence Ax a police spy described the reaction to one of her placards, “People stop 2 minute, then walk off saying, “Oh, t's just Olympe de Gouger “© There can be no doubt about the ardent fernimsm of the author of the Drosts dz Ja Femme, Although her execution in 1793 had obvious polacal causes, «f was not without its significance as 4 gesture of teprersion toward the Aeminists. The semvofhicsal Feuille du salut public glosred, “le rsema the Jaw has punished this conspirator for having forgotten the virtues hat suit a ee, who like de Gouges glamnorised het name by declacng hensclt the ‘Barone’ d’Aeldcrs, came 10 Paris trom Holland in 1774 Palm urged the Constituent Assembly 10 form a company ‘cof amasons as ‘a hese blow to the prejudices that have been wrapped around our lives,’ and she revolution in oUF customs’ 10 overthrow sexual ne | 10 the general populace an Appel aux Franyasses et nécessite de U'influence des femmes dans 1791 she tried 10 organize a national federation“Jane Abray 8 2 8 o 2 ca g § 3 r z 3 § s 8 a 2 > g Mou M a we 3 $ 33 ES 3 a 3 2 =z = a nA 3 2 - e a g 5 8 3 5 3 8 a 3 : g 8 8 8 ge e S 3 ee a 5 2 g g 3 a 3 » holding a salon, trying to form a women'e club, Participating in the attacks on she Tuileries, and striding about in riding clothes. Her feminism was something of a sideline, albeit sincere. In an autobiographical account she declared herself to be ‘humiliated by the eae ee Boe ss ae acpi cin = a 3 8 3 2 a . zB) a ie S : 2 ‘ 2 8 ° 3 g i; > 5 8 = z. en A WOU was released, only to be Permanently recommitted in 1797. Two other women deserve mention, the chocolate maker Pauline Léon and the actress Claire Lacombe, founders and Presidents of the most | famous of the women’s clubs, the Citoyennes Républicaines Révolution- naires. Founded in the spring of 1793, the club contributed to the fall of the Caines were sans-culottes women, and their programme emphasized eco- nomic claims, notably cheap food, rather than strictly feminist demands. Nevertheless the Républicaines showed some sympathy for women’s emancipation. Only two accounts of their meetings survive, and one shows the Républicaines discussing women’s Capacity to govern, At the first of these the citoyenne Monic concluded that women were certainly worthy to rule nations, perhaps even ‘more so than were men. In June 1793 ne Republicaines tried to put theit ideas into practice by attempting to to the Conseil Général Revolutionnaire, newly set up in PaFeminism in the French Revolution 4s The women of the Droits de I'Homme section had high praises for their activines. ) You have broken one of the links in the chain of prejudice that one, which confined women to the narrow sphere of their households, making one half of the people into passive and isolated beings, no longer exists for you. You want to take your place in the social order, apathy offends and humiliates you,2” The femimst programme for educational, economic, political, and legal change developed piecemeal. To justify their goals the femimists used three major arguments. First, women were human beings who therefore shared in the natural rights of man, a conviction often explicitly expressed but also umphcit in the borrowing of political terms hike ‘aristocracy’ and ‘despotism’ to describe the old system. Feminists saw the women's strug: gle as parallel to and a continuation of the war of the Third Estate against the upper classes. Second, the feminists made use of women’s biological role. As the mothers of all citizens women had a special claim on the state, for they guaranteed its survival. Unlike modern feminists, they made no attempt to define women as other than mothers and potential mothers Third, once the Revolution was under way, feminists cited women's poli- tical contributions to the struggle for liberty and pointed to their continu- ing patriotism. Since they were fulfilling the duties of citizens women could nor logically be denied the rights of citizens. The feminists felt they had solid grounds for their proposals, but one by one the revolutionary governments rejected them. Education was the most ithportant feminist rallying point. It was also the subject on which feminists and their opponents had managed some agreement before the Revolution. The conviction that women’s education needed improvement had been fairly general before 1789. The revolution- ary governments considered a multitude of educational projects from which some common principles can be extracted. Most projects followed Talleyrand’s lead in declaring that both sexes must be educated and then sharply distinguishing between the kinds of education suitable to each. His *Projet de décret’ read in September 1791 sounded a note that ag again and again. ‘All the lessons taught in the public schools it sg Particularly co train girls for the virtues of domestic life and S is u ee the skills useful in raising a family’ The conventionne een Deleyre dismissed secondary education for women as unmscessary ee of the less progsessive lepslarors would have denied even primary educa tio ing to see them taught housekeeping at home. The it iblic Education did in fact vore to suppress 1795 but then changed its mind the y governments never succeeded inDane Aboey {ha they eglete women. Yer ns lea ® ramon alto petpetvat seal through pubtk location. fr sho wn and the prom oan eepande school aytem held ct tome hope of ployment te hen ee ofthe few hopes the Relaon ler to women wh Sado car shew own trang The Commas of Pe Sule and the Consens ehucatan comntte Kh hte ih the ete tno some to atte, tut othng came of Nor ch the returns {ercromens make am tit ro Rlp the women nord by the oops of faery wader the sik and Tac The Gorromene exsNhel eon TE ete ct ie Reon ra some, Jen Sts Bly the major of Pas requered si or theo sm Janey 1°90, ba was almoxt two yeas ore sahing win done tnd dhe acuom came fom munnipa mee mana suthories, Where Sonen ver sd hey were retry pan! fess tan smow tab Salperre nrc im part othe poh of she anpadlaber of youne els to make ends meer Svall womier wenn ‘ontnaed co compare Unde the O1Repine women could semetimes vote and at 3 ens. orig the Revolution thy assumed the rh fo or poli soc ston Lem thane yar afer the cain ofthe Etate-Geneal ht Hod “duappcared. The lepsacorsbarly onsdeed female surge dese heated arguments the Femina had pr forward. Abbe Eman Jencph Sees vsced the pneralopion a cary 2 ul 1789. "Wormen, leas as chngs now stand, children frcpne' short thoe whe ron vite nohngto th bli exalshment shld have no de nfocore tn the government"! The pstematinin of Hench eestor la he ‘ated the wosymcasies tha had permed women Yo wre forthe Bert Sime in cenrnes women were compl bared 8 2 group, fom thes aspect ofthe pois! procs, Few people preted tut extunion, The omen of Dros de IYlomme (scion) in ars sd the Republicans Revolouonnares castigated the provisions of the Consiaion of P93, ‘nly by making speeches the lasers clo, Posy the infreuency tng out of his exlsion, ceiay a the eve where plincs realy mated inthe cla and secon, women his sympathies were imited” Rabespert’s ature temains Cnigmatc. Jacuer Godeshot asserts hat he spoke 1 faer of woes fr women inthe Conativent Assembly, but ober commentators plac bin the opposite camp. The volumes af ht Oewures completes published co date shed no hight Lous Antone Santust would go as far as agreeing ‘hat Lawson adler shouldbe equal for both exes butik Mirabeau, he belonged to the “lalene etcressante school and urged that gilt beae Pete ren ech emer nt on Stare eet Rect tl ney mann ae et eens Set det lager Reina here sical moderates whom the progr the Reluionindetally “The characters ofthe feminist leaders were scarcely the sort (0 id favor with the respectable, O thos whose hes we Hom, ony Condoreet seat above reproach, The pretension o gnulity of de Googe, Thevorgne de Mericour, and the "Baronne™ d'aeiers truck contemporanion 33 Todierous, apd this amusement cari oer to thet actin The urs try hstores of Theoige de Mencourt and Clare Lacombe id nat help TK more oy ean il aco an Le sons eh ‘rape Leclerc White ake reyohtionares might be forge thet sexual eee ll et cree ech chon Evens ter sted she custome of a double uandard war work aga them Mit ot he femms Teadere were frcher compromised bythe poll Rharectons whether modcrare or extremist, Moreove the feminsts wee Si held gy forthe ets of all orer women = the Emits, the #0 Ieutes, Mane Antone, Chaloste Corday Protest 2s they might, the (certian gould neerconnnce the pubic thatthe pone af collective ‘Srpomubliry shold nt be aplied othe whole sx "Fae femmes made tcial and sratepe errors. Women’s groupe allowed themacves to be dsteaced fo easly. The Republicanes Revol TESTING themselves become embroled im srect Rebs ore the wear TTGIIRE cocane andthe bonne rouge Allo he wore’ cabs sled Meet htc halt of pttng other people's cases before their own, The fro clube seed mec noes md societies, and even the Bry reece mere more ered in the price of breed than n women's aera icimercrconmendate these ponstons may hive been 24 expres Tee allergens of spr hey were sorely damaping 10 ay aempt co ETE Specie reel change. The feminists showed ther sgn of patil Tedlcdnaptl expercnce. They acted in slain: india leaders HOG MNEs comacs with ech other, the cubs proveeded indepen. TRPse occasional aempe tone op atonal organization cme ‘onorhng Treat sem, too, that shat vag entiy, the apni of the times, ran count he enn esuron, One important aspect of See a he eal ofthe mca famiy Time and agan eins STRSI Sar the conncion thatthe changer they advocated were una tural be women belonged sn the home. This was the most frequent re pStaom yen for setoung thor request: The ea of the family 28 2 caplet aime bythe ie, ta which the husband rete (rom hs ae ee ea mod, was» relaey recent development certaily ta ane ee ake reality of lower-class il, Ine Tomer-cass women could to apend all thest me Keeping house. Ie wa the wealthy who Feet stpsgsaphsetadtion around the (amy Once women were dew tone ded tothe home there was no "need fot feminsm, and the Fe ee mmddle-class poliicans could ony gate upon vt blank eT eine To thet way of thunk. fefuing the femunss” demands ate heen counted a8 30 many 2c of kindness woward women ue co Mame Mpature too delicate for the dirty world snto which the Temnis eed co thrust them. aa onary femimsm began in 2 burst of exshuntasm es unpopular, eran ind the bisatul mcomprehension and dogmatism of ts rear combined to obicrate While Late ot was 2 vey tal SPeecmcnon uh » comprchensie programme for sol hanes pthaps aor ar reaching sch programme ofthe Revolution, This very radical Ia na at ar mould remain a munotty movement, almost the Pree ae sectors Inluenual contemporancs turned out specch after speech, ceereeeetee newspaper report ater port without ever acknowled ME aon rece. Despre ta minonty nature and ts abject file, revolutionary dames noe without sgmficance Illasrates, as deacy 23 anything on, Hee tenons of the Revolutionary calendar and stands 2s stoking oof of the erential socal conserratism ofthis pobtcal upheara Notes ober Jouegh Robt Traté dela pane dh mar (17D), Ms Oeweres temple an TH, 10 83 ‘Soler de Weer, {Amt des femmes, op. Skt enti tee Salers Hite de Lr reste frame det npn 3 868 fans See) p 2, aics m ong See it Thgekne ox Late er Uadacaom (172, er See cmplier (acuneht 3) Fare iene 70 at Jeane Bowe Peon de rs Revol (Puce 131, 24-90 Dut compare th ee inst aaiencer oman ds mest Mime Bs B etme ee Rano? 6 owner Les fomet en non 9p 26-74 § Rowwpt Let fom Peo des etme 7 ort det ts’ pubihed inthe ee ae ety ont, Ya Conds, Oewre, 10-99 119-30 Geom Joes ena AP Ub 1967-1972), 199,02 wv 61. ache areata The nes fr tide, See the mecngs of Jah Perea HTM, wo Prceh-verbavr et appors du come de