Discover the role of women in the French Revolution, including their political activism, demands for equal rights, and the impact of figures like Olympe de Gouges.

Women's Participation in the French Revolution

• • From the very beginning, women were active participants in the events that brought about important changes in French society. They hoped their involvement would pressurize the revolutionary government to introduce measures to improve their lives.
  • Most women of the third estate had to work for a living. They worked as seamstresses or laundresses, sold flowers, fruits, and vegetables at the market, or were employed as domestic servants in the houses of prosperous people.

  

  • Most women did not have access to education or job training. Only the daughters of nobles or wealthier members of the third estate could study at a convent, after which their families arranged a marriage for them.
  • Working women also had to care for their families, cooking, fetching water, queuing for bread, and looking after the children. Their wages were lower than those of men.
  • In order to discuss and voice their interests, women started their own political clubs and newspapers. About sixty women's clubs came up in different French cities. The Society of Revolutionary and Republican Women was the most famous of them.
• Women's Political Demands
  • One of their main demands was that women enjoy the same political rights as men. Women were disappointed that the Constitution of 1791 reduced them to passive citizens. They demanded the right to vote, to be elected to the Assembly, and to hold political office.
  • In the early years, the revolutionary government did introduce laws that helped improve the lives of women. These included the creation of state schools, where schooling was made compulsory for all girls. Their fathers could no longer force them into marriage against their will.
  • Marriage was made into a contract entered into freely and registered under civil law. Divorce was made legal and could be applied for by both women and men.
  • Women could now train for jobs, could become artists or run small businesses.
• Women’s Struggles During the Reign of Terror
  • Women’s struggle for equal political rights continued. During the Reign of Terror, the new government issued laws ordering the closure of women's clubs and banning their political activities. Many prominent women were arrested, and a number of them executed.
  • Women's movements for voting rights and equal wages continued through the next two hundred years in many countries. The fight for the vote was carried out through an international suffrage movement during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
  • It was finally in 1946 that women in France won the right to vote.
• Olympe de Gouges
  • Olympe de Gouges was one of the most important politically active women in revolutionary France. She protested against the Constitution and the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen, as they excluded women from basic rights.
  • In 1791, she wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and Citizen, demanding that women be given the same political rights as men.
  • In 1793, she criticized the Jacobin government for forcibly closing down women's clubs. She was tried by the National Convention and charged with treason. Soon after, she was executed.
• Olympe de Gouges’ Declaration: Basic Rights
  • Woman is born free and remains equal to man in rights.
  • The goal of all political associations is the preservation of the natural rights of woman and man: These rights are liberty, property, security, and above all, resistance to oppression.
  • The source of all sovereignty resides in the nation, which is nothing but the union of woman and man.
  • The law should be the expression of the general will; all female and male citizens should have a say either personally or by their representatives in its formulation; it should be the same for all. All female and male citizens are equally entitled to all honours and public employment according to their abilities and without any other distinction than that of their talents.
  • No woman is an exception; she is accused, arrested, and detained in cases determined by law. Women, like men, obey this rigorous law.
• Chaumette's Justification for Closing Women’s Clubs
  • Chaumette, in 1793, argued that nature had entrusted domestic duties to men and women had a place in the household. He condemned women who wished to enter political spaces, saying it was against nature.
• Slavery and Emancipation
  • One of the most revolutionary social reforms of the Jacobin regime was the abolition of slavery in the French colonies. This included the abolition of slavery in colonies like Martinique, Guadeloupe, and San Domingo.
  • The triangular slave trade between Europe, Africa, and the Americas was the main system that supplied labor for French colonies. However, it was only in 1794 that the Convention legislated to free all slaves in French colonies.
  • Although slavery was reintroduced under Napoleon, it was finally abolished in French colonies in 1848.
• Changes in Everyday Life
  • The revolutionary government passed laws that translated the ideals of liberty and equality into everyday practice. One important law was the abolition of censorship. All written material could now be published freely, and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen proclaimed freedom of speech and expression as a natural right.
  • This freedom of the press meant that different viewpoints could be expressed. Plays, songs, and festive processions were a popular way for people to connect with the revolutionary ideas.