Describe the role of women during the French revolution for 5mark
Answers
Despite the major changes in society that occur in 1792 through the inauguration of the First Republic, women are pretty much left aside from all the evolution of citizenship at the beginning.
They are never mentionned in the Declaration of the Rights of the Man and of the Citizen of 1789
The ideal woman, even for the male philosophers of the Révolution, is the mother that will bring young bright future “sans-culottes” citizens into the world.
They are also seen as guardians of “morality” and “virtue” that were the premises of the Révolution.
But they didn’t go down without a fight and had a considerable role to play in the events of the Révolution, especially through organising the political struggle.
They were generally the tenants of clubs and “Salons”, where politicians and masterminds of the Révolution debated and elaborated the concepts of the soon-to-be First Republic. For example : Robespierre was a regular of Manon Roland’s litterary club/salon before the entire conflict between the Montagnards and the Girondins (where she was a very respected and influential figure). So influential in fact that through her grip on Girondins activities, she managed to push Jean-Marie Roland de La Platière on the forefront of the Révolution as a leader, and that was quite a common thing for other salon littéraire owners.
They took up arms and constituted sometimes even half of the participants in the street riots that occured in the 1780s, notably in the revolts of the Sarthe of April and even in the Day of the Tiles 7th of June 1788, the start of the Révolution.
Women are very often credited through multiple sources of local authorities and even deputies of starting the marches, the riots and the protests. So much so that a law was instituted to limit the public reunion of women to a minimum of 5 individuals.
On the 5th of October 1789, a group of revolutionnaries constituted of nearly only women march towards Versailles to bring the king Louis XVI and his wife Marie-Antoinette to Paris by force so they could be judged there. It is a very known and symbolic event.
The women that take part in the Révolution, especially through direct action generally have the same set of characteristics :
They are Parisian. This is also true for the men, most of the action occurs in Paris, as most of the centers of power and authority were established in the capital.
They are part of the lowest spheres of society, mostly worker class. This of course doesn’t concern the salons owners, litterary figures and such that were often times from the bourgeoisie or even aristocracy.
They are generally over 30, when a women of this time was on average more independent. (basically when she is done raising children)
Despite their importance in the struggles of the Révolution, their will to change society and their implication in most of the riots, the women are quickly evicted from all assemblies. But that didn’t stop them from :
Massively attending the public assemblies or every other major public event, screaming and scanding against injustice towards them and the poorest spheres of the sans-culotterie. They were pejoratively nicknamed : “the tricoteuses” (knitting woman) because men jokingly implied that they came and stayed for so long to have an entertaining spot to proceed to knit. It is probably true that the poorest of the female attendees did in fact knit, and this phenomenon probably led to those particular women popularizing the very symbolic “bonnet phrygien” among all the public.
Form women-exclusive clubs to debate the new laws and reforms and especially read them or even teach to read them to the poorest of the women who were members, lead activism towards full equaliity for divorce, the armament of women, and so on. The Société des républicaines révolutionnaires was such a club (led by the very influential and known Pauline Léon who read a petition signed by over 300 Parisians for equal rights and Claire Lacombe, a precursor of feminism). Sadly, all female-only clubs were banned on the 30th of October 1793.
Debate and protest against every law that excluded them from the newly born citizenship. For example wearing the famous tricolor cocarde that was a symbol of citizenship publicly, which was harshly reprimanded.