Question

Olympe de Gouges inserted women into the political changes of the French Revolution in her piece Declarations of the Rights of Women. Discuss how women participated in the Revolution, how they argued for sharing the rights men claimed, and what the result of women’s activism was.

Answer 1

At the start of the French Revolution in 1789, French women were largely confined to the private sphere. Domestic duty and family obligations dictate their behavior, and public life is the domain of man. However, the ideas of equality and camaraderie that sparked the French Revolution have fascinated women from all walks of life. Women were eager to voice their political views and complaints. As upper class intellectuals debated property rights and universal suffrage, the working classes took to the streets with their frustrations of finding affordable bread. The French Revolution was born from the ideas of the Enlightenment. New ideas about education, class and individual rights were debated at Parisian high society parties called salons. These meetings were established before the revolution and were often organized not by a distinguished man, but by his elegant (and, hopefully, enterprising) wife. Known as salonnières, these ladies exercised a great indirect influence in the world of politics and diplomacy. They were daughters of French ministers or wives of aristocrats and had grown up with the privilege of an expansive education. Although they do not enjoy legal rights, they are often seen as intellectuals just like the men in their lives. Historians still argue over the salon's true character and role in history, but there is no doubt that it provided a platform for its guests to exert influence beyond the domestic realm.

There are few prominent women of the French Revolution. I have to remember that, in general, women didn't get much out of it, as most revolutionary leaders saw women as mere distractions from men's socio-political goals. The French Revolution was really not very revolutionary when it came to gender roles. Indeed, a prominent mountain politician characterized the wife's role as inherently that of a housewife, babysitting the children while the radical husband protested. They relied on the many mistresses of the kings of France of the past as examples, especially Louis XV. Olympe de Gouges is probably the most famous woman of the revolution. A devoted writer, she has devoted much of her energy to fighting for women's rights. She wrote the famous Declaration of the Rights of Women and Citizens, which reflects the Declaration of Human Rights. She gained popularity, especially outside of France, and her efforts were noticed by British and American women.

It was the women in court who put an end to Marie-Antoinette's cruel and absurd trial when prosecutors tried to charge her with incest. The female figure has largely been the symbol of the revolution, given the goddess of reason, which has been erected in churches across France, including Notre Dame. She aligns herself politically with the moderate group known as the Girondins, who, like her, comes from richer backgrounds. Unfortunately, he was left on the wrong side, and when the Girondins fell from power, de Gouges was sent to the guillotine. He also spoke out against slavery and claimed to empower people. Unfortunately for the cause of gender equality in France, De Gouges was on the wrong side. She was a Girondin, a moderate Republican, and opposed to the most radical elements of the revolution. He maintained that Louis XVI had been exiled and not executed. The last straw came in 1793 when he issued a request to hold a referendum on whether France would be a monarchy or a republic. She and her associates were arrested and purged as part of the Reign of Terror. With them died any possibility that the French Revolution would bring a breakthrough for women and, in fact, eventually saw a reversal of women's rights, when Napoleon in his Code Napoleon declared a woman fundamentally subordinate to her husband and abolished divorce.

BEFORE FRENCH REVOLUTION

women had no political rights, women were simply passive citizens, women demanded equality with men, they rejected male domination.

French Revolution "WOMEN'S ROLE"

• They founded their own club and political newspaper • They asked for the right to vote • They asked to be elected to the Assembly and to exercise political office • The most notable demand of women during the French Revolution was the “right to vote” and equal remuneration. • To discuss and do hearing their demands, they created many "political clubs" and "newspapers", including "the society of revolutionaries" "and" republican women ". • One of the most important French revolutionary women was Olympe de Gouges. • They are Parisian. This also applies to men, part of the action takes place in Paris, with most of the centers of power and authority having been established in the capital. • They are part of the lower spheres of society, mainly the working class. This, of course, does not concern the owners of the salons, literary figures and others, who often belonged to the bourgeoisie or even the aristocracy. • They are usually over 30, when a woman in this period was on average more independent. • Despite their importance in the struggles of the Revolution, their desire to change society and their involvement in most revolts, women are quickly expelled from all assemblies. • Attend town halls or any other important public event en masse, shouting and screaming against injustice against them and in the poorest spheres of sans-culottes. They were pejoratively nicknamed "knitting" because the men jokingly hinted that they came and stayed so long to have a fun place to start knitting. That • Discuss and protest any law that excludes them from newborn citizenship.

several women took part in the revolution. • Théroigne de Mericourt sought to create a militia of armed women, arguing that the law established the right of women to fight alongside men. She was accused of killing a royalist journalist and suspected of plotting the death of the queen. To avoid the guillotine during the Terror, she feigned insanity and was then interned for 20 years. It is said that he was a model of the Liberty of Delacroix who led the people. • Charlotte Corday killed Marat, the journalist who ordered the murder and supported the terror. So he did not attempt to escape, but instead confronted his accusers, claiming in his defense that he had sacrificed one man to save 100,000 more.