Women In The French Revolution

Women participated in virtually every aspect of the French Revolution. Their participation almost always proved controversial, as women's status in the family, society, and politics had long been a subject of great debate. Despite this, women in the revolution demonstrated themselves as symbols of subversive brilliance, previously unprecedented in French society. Not only did they emerge themselves as equal and productive citizens, they changed the revolution by contributing so fiercely to the cause. In the eighteenth century, women did not have the right to an education, which proved quarrelsome during this period. Women were destined to cater to their husbands and families, and take on domestic roles in the home rather than public, political

In fact, most women acted in a more collective, less striking fashion. Women began to attend meetings of political clubs, where they could speak freely about the state of the nation. First and foremost, they endeavored to guarantee food for their families. Concern over the price of food led to riots in February 1792 and again in February 1793. In these disturbances, which often began at the door of shops, women usually played a prominent role, egging on their confederates to demand lower prices and to insist on confiscating goods and selling them at a "just" price. A small but vocal minority of women activists set up their own political clubs. The best known of these was the Society of Revolutionary Republican Women established in Paris in May 1793. The members hoped to gain political education for themselves and a platform for expressing their views to the political authorities. The society did not endorse full political rights for women; it was devoted to advocating against hoarders and counterrevolutionaries and to proposing ways for women to participate in the war effort. Accounts of the meetings demonstrate the keen interest of women in political affairs, even when those accounts come from hostile critics of the women's

The incoming Thermidorians disbanded and transformed the institutional bases of women's political power and limited their influence as citizens. The drive for reform of the legal and social condition of women had ended. This proved that the revolutionary influence of women was not to last. What could not be taken from women was their memory of victories during the French Revolution: their march to Versailles, the storming of the Bastille, their petitions to the legislature, their club meetings, their processions, their insurrections. Their defeats served as lessons for next