1. Women in the French Revolution Ms. Pojer Sophomore EHAP
Lara S.
Ms. Pojer Sophomore EHAP

2. What was the role of women in the French Revolution?

3. The French Revolution

4. The Cultural Climate Liberty! Equality! Fraternity!
Enlightenment ideals.
The term “citizen” becomes more widely used, instead of gender specific titles.
Though women were obviously not given the vote during this time, just the fact that it was discussed shows the respect women gained.
flags:

5. Female Soldiers

6. The Intervention of the Sabine Women by David
Some saw female soldiers were seen as “unnatural” women, or “traitors to their sex”
However, as David portrayed them, some saw them as heroines, protecting their family
picture:

7. Théroigne de Mericourt 1762-1817
Participated in the uprising of August 10th.
I was at ease playing the role of a man because I was always extremely humiliated by the servitude and prejudices under which men’s pride keeps our sex oppressed.
She put on a National Guard Uniform and fought, pretending to be a man.
Mericourt picture:
Cannon picture:

8. Renée Bordereau Became known as the “Vendean Joan of Arc”
Fought against the Republicans to avenge the deaths of 42 of her family members on the Royalist side
Later imprisoned by Emperor Napoleon
She surprised people with her acts, because she did not hide that she was a women.
She naturally preferred to wear men’s clothing and fight, which led many to believe she was a lesbian.
Bordereau picture: From Blood Sisters, by Marilyn Yalom
Cannon picture:

9. Other Female Soldiers Françoise Deprés
Messenger, provisioner, troop leader
Easily recognized because she was missing an eye so she was often imprisoned
Jeanne Robin
Kept her sex a complete secret
Only told her general’s wife because she needed a lighter weight jacket but couldn’t ask him without giving up her cover
Cannon picture:

10. The October Days October 5, 1789
Market-women from Paris marched to the palace in Versailles
Angry over the increase in bread prices and food shortages
“Tear out the Queen’s heart and fry her liver!”
6000 people in total
Marched from 11 AM – 5:30 PM
This was the last uprising before Louis, in tears, gave into the August Decrees and the Declaration of the Rights of Man
Chaos continued until 2 AM the next day
At 5:30 a group of the women snuck into the inner courtyard led by Nicolas Jourdan, a model from the Academy of Painting and Sculpture.
With swords and axes they planned to kill Marie Antoinette but she escaped
They wanted to “tear out the queen’s heart and fry her liver!”
By this time there were even more people in the courtyard, holding the impaled severed heads of two murdered royal bodyguards
The End: Louis went out to see the people, but they demanded Marie Antoinette
The crowd was impressed at her courage
Women marching picture:
Bread picture:

11. Feminists

12. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1791)
Mary Wollstonecraft
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1791)
She was married to Gilbert Imlay and gave birth to daughter Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (writer of Frankenstein)
Imlay left her and she attempted suicide
She believed women were equally intelligent and rational as men and it is simply a woman’s poor education which resulted in their silly and emotional behaviors.
She argued that if women had equal education, everything else would follow, including equal marriages.
Mary Wollstonecraft picture:

13. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
“…Civilized women are, therefore, so weakened by false refinement, that, respecting morals, their condition is much below what it would be were they left in a state nearer to nature… To remain, it may be said, innocent; they mean in a state of childhood… Fragile in every sense of the word, they are obliged to look up to man for every comfort… if fear in girls, instead of being cherished, perhaps, created, were treated in the same manner as cowardice in boys, we should quickly see women with more dignified aspects… I do not wish them to have power over men; but over themselves…”

14. Declaration of the Rights of Women and the Female Citizen
Olympe de Gouges
Declaration of the Rights of Women and the Female Citizen
(1791)
Written in response to the implication of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen that women were inferior and did not deserve the same rights given to men (by leaving them out).
Writing this led to her being charged with treason and executed by the guillotine on November 3, 1793.
Picture of Olympe de Gouges:

15. From De Gouges’ Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen
Woman, wake up… discover your rights.
Oh, women, women! When will you cease to be blind?
Regardless of what barriers confront you, it is in your power to free yourselves; you have only to want to…
I offer a foolproof way to elevate the soul of women; it is to join them to all the activities of man…
Man… Tell me, what gives you sovereign empire to oppress my sex?
Pencil picture:

16. Aims of the Declaration of the Rights of Woman
Education for women
Equal opportunities for women
In employment
A claim to land
Equality for women in the eyes of the law
Women must receive equal punishments
Pencil picture:

17. Aims, Continued A social contract between men and women in marriage
All wealth is shared
In the case of separation all property divided
Women and men equal in a marriage
Women’s suffrage
A national assembly of women
Equal rights for women
Natural rights
Freedom of speech
Pencil picture:

18. Other Feminists Etta Palm Claire Lacombe
Petitioned for education and legal rights for women
Claire Lacombe
Organized a club of Revolutionary Republican Citizenesses

19. Women’s Petition to the National Assembly (1789)
All the privileges of the male sex are irrevocably abolished throughout France.
The feminine sex will always enjoy the same liberty, advantages, rights and honors as does the masculine sex.
The masculine genre will no longer be regarded… as the more noble genre… all being should be and are equally noble.
… In the household both parties should enjoy the same authority
Written shortly after the October 1789 march of the market women to Versailles
The October Days led many women to feel they could be involved

20. Women’s Petition, Continued
That wearing breeches will no longer be the exclusive prerogative of the male sex, but each sex will have the right…
When a soldier has… compromised French honor, he will no longer be degraded… [by] making him wear women’s clothing…
All persons of the feminine sex must be admitted without exception to the direct and departmental assemblies…
They can also be appointed as Magistrates…
The same applies to all positions, compensations, and military dignities…
Nor do we hesitate to open the sanctuary to the feminine sex…

21. Petition of Women of the Third Estate to the King
Written in respectful, polite terms, insisting changes, not demanding them (January 1, 1789)
Better education
Representation for women
Jobs which would open only to women, so prostitution would end
Resented that daughters were treated differently than sons and that old unmarried women were scorned
“We ask to be enlightened, to have work, not in order to usurp men’s authority, but in order to be better esteemed…

22. Girondin supporter who killed Jacobin Jean-Paul Marat on July 13, 1793
Charlotte Corday
Girondin supporter who killed Jacobin Jean-Paul Marat on July 13, 1793
She was 24 when she murdered Marat
She was a supporter of the Girondins, who liked the Revolution but didn’t like violence
As the Revolution got more radical, she hear about brutality and blamed Marat for the Reign of Terror
She was even more angry for the execution of King Louis and the arrest of the Girondins.
Corday picture:

23. The Murder
Corday sent a note to Marat earlier saying, “I come from Caen. Your love for your country should make you curious to know about the plots that are taking place there. I will await your answer.”
This note did grab Marat’s attention and though he was very sick, he let Corday in to see him
Corday told him the names of traitors and then stabbed him in the chest
Dagger picture: Powerpoint Clipart

24. The Aftermath
Just after Corday stabbed Marat, his friend rushed into the bathroom
A man sitting downstairs waiting for an article from Marat heard the commotion and assumed Marat had been attacked. When Corday got downstairs, this man hit her over the head with a chair
Four days later Corday was tried and guillotined
Guillotine picture: Powerpoint Clipart

25. The Trial and Execution
In a conversation between the prosecutor (P) and Corday (C):
P – Why did you kill Marat? Who inspired you with so much hatred for him? C – I didn’t need the hatred of others. I had plenty of my own. P – But what did you hope to gain from killing him? C – I killed one man to save a thousand. P – Do you think there was only one Marat? C – No, but by killing him I have warned the others. His death will frighten the rest of them.
So many people wanted to see Corday being taken to the guillotine that the cart she was carried in went out of the way to go through many small streets.
At the guillotine Corday’s executor blocked her view of the guillotine so she wouldn’t have to face it but she asked him to move because she wanted to inspect it.
Charlotte Corday en Prison:
“Charlotte Corday en Prison” by Jacques-Louis Muller

26. Charlotte Corday by Paul Jacques Aimé Baudry
Picture of Corday and Marat:

27. Death of Marat
by David
This note in Marat’s left hand is from Charlotte Corday, reading, “… I am being persecuted for the sake of liberty.”
Death of Marat:

28. The Marquis de Condorcet (Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat)
Supporting Men
They publicly supported women’s causes and agreed that women were equally intelligent to men and should be equal under the law
Marquis de Condorcet picture:
Emmanuel Sieyes picture:
The Marquis de Condorcet (Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat)
Emmanuel Sièyes

29. Pierre-Gaspard Chaumette Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Opposing Men
Chaumette: “Since when is it permitted to give up one’s sex? Since when is it decent to see women abandoning the pious cares of their households, the cribs of their children… It is to men that nature confided domestic cares? Has she given us breasts to feed our children?”
Chaumette picture:
Rousseau picture:
Pierre-Gaspard Chaumette
Jean-Jacques Rousseau

30. Jean-Baptiste-André Amar (1755-1816)
From The Report of Amar, October 21, 1793
Can women exercise political rights and take an active part in the affairs of government? Can they deliberate together in political associations or popular societies?
On these two questions the committee decided in the negative.
[It] demands a devotion without limits… Are women capable of these cares and of the qualities that governance demands?
In general, we can respond no. Very few examples would contradict this
Amar’s report led to a decree outlawing women’s societies
He is also known as Jean-Pierre-Andre Amar
He was president of the National Convention between April 5th and 20th in 1794

31. From The Report of Amar, Continued
Can women devote themselves to these useful and difficult functions?
No, because they would be obliged to sacrifice the more important cares to which nature calls them.
Each sex is called to a type of occupation which is fitting; its action is circumscribed within this circle which it cannot break through, because nature which has set the limits for man commands imperiously and does not recognize any law.

32. From The Report of Amar, Continued II
In general, women are ill suited for elevated conceptions and serious meditations… would you wish for them to be seen coming to the bar, to the tribune, to political assemblies like men, abandoning both reserve, the source of all virtues of their sex, and the care of their family?

33. From The Report of Amar, Continued III
There is another respect in which associations of women appear dangerous…
Their presence in popular societies would give therefore then an active part in government to persons more exposed to error and to seduction. Let us add that women are disposed by their organization to an excess excitement which would be deadly in public affairs and that the interests of the state would soon be sacrificed to all that the intensity of passion can produce in errors and disorder.

34. Improvements for Women Made During the Revolution
Men and women were equally eligible to inherit property
Divorce legalized (so a woman could also choose to end a marriage)
In a divorce, women had a right to some of the common property
A system of education was created for both boys and girls
How did these improvements last/change during the Napoleonic Era?
The Code Napoleon (1804)
Wife must be obedient, subservient to husband
Wife is not a person without her husband, she is treated like a minor
Wife “cannot give, pledge, or acquire by free or chargeable title, without the concurrence of her husband in the act, or his consent in writing.
In a divorce, the children automatically go to the father
Paternal power
“A married woman cannot make donation during life without the assistance or the special consent of her husband.”
“The husband alone administers the property of the community. He may sell it, alienate and pledge it without the concurrence of his wife.”
Wife doesn’t have any right to the money she and her husband have, she is simply given an allowance.