French Revolution and Women

Throughout history males have been perceived as the dominant sex. This notion had been strong in Europe and most of the Western World. The colony of New France, however, was able to break this way of thinking and began to regard their women as an equal. Women’s roles in New France could be described as small but very important as day to day life would not be as efficient without the help of the women of New France. Both European women and Aboriginal women had jobs that were essential to everyday life, women helped contribute to the fur trade, Catholic nuns had major roles in education and health, and the women of New France went against the norm of the modern European woman.

Women are frequently overlooked when it comes to history in the 18th centuries. They were there in the flesh for all of the historical events, but they are rarely mentioned. Everyone has heard of the “Founding Fathers”, but students rarely hear about the “Founding Mothers” in their curriculum. Although women did not directly plan out our government, they still deserve to be given some credit for it. The roles that women played during the Revolutionary War greatly influenced the outcome of the war and the country that resulted from it.

Compare and contrast the extent to which the French Revolution (1789-1799) and the Russian Revolution (1917-1924) changed the status of women.

Part A: Women participated in almost every aspect of the French Revolution. This investigation will answer the question, to what extent did women contribute to the French Revolution? This question is important because the choices of the women during this time still leads a major impact of history even today. The scope of this investigation was The French Revolution during a period of time between the years 1787 to 1799, and was known to be a very controversial time period in the history of France.

The American Revolution, which happened during the last half of the eighteenth century, reshaped many aspects of life in America. The desire of the Founding Fathers to make America a republic played a very significant part in changing the role of women after the Revolution. The role of women as wives became more important as an emphasis on virtue was established; women were encouraged to find virtuous husbands and utilize their seductive nature to keep men virtuous. The roles of women as mothers also became more important in the republic, as patriarchy loosened and mothers were depended on to educate their children in the republican way. And finally, the role of women in politics was theoretically reduced due to the increasing demands of

However, ‘theory’ is the key word here, as this was not true in practice. As Johnson highlights, there were no legal provisions at any point during the French Revolution to guarantee these rights. Although the estates system was abolished, the class system remained, and there continued to be huge wealth disparity in France. As the October Days in the same year highlighted, urban workers continued to struggle to afford bread. The Declaration only guaranteed equality of rights. Although this is significant, the Declaration was by no means so revolutionary that it eliminated inequality and oppression in France. This is arguably best exemplified by examining women’s rights. The Declaration makes little progress in gender equality. Men

Feminism as it pertains to France needs a more in-depth description. Feminist theory in France appeared as a revolutionary movement that would jam the theoretical machinery of republican discourse, exposing its limits and disrupting its smooth functioning (Duchen 7). The republic showed inherent flaws in its philosophy when it promised universal suffrage to all and delivered suffrage for all males, considering its wives, mothers, and daughters as non-citizens. French Feminists faced an uphill battle with the strong patriarchal institutions upheld in the government, as well as in the church and home. Therefore, French feminism was a radical political movement often fought against by the status quo that sought "the end of a political relationship of the sexes characterized by masculine dominance and female subordinance," (Moses 7).

While reading, “Family and Feminism in the French Revolution” by Lindsay A.H. Parker, on the life of Rosalie Ducrollay Jullien, it was interesting to compare the views women had on their role in society during the french revolution, to the feminist ideologies of the 21st century. Before the french revolution, the effects of misogyny were evident. In the reading, we see how this patriarchal culture affects Jullien. The biggest shock coming from her own view of her being essentially less than her husband when it comes to intellectual ability. This is seen on page 43 when she writes to her friend in a letter how she wishes to reach her husband's “level of intellect, “but it is so high that [she] cannot.”” In the western world of the 21st century, this thought is highly frowned upon. Many women do not view themselves in the way Jullien did. The growth of feminism fought against this thought. Feminism helped fight for the view of equality between women and men. Now, with the rise of women partaking on jobs outside of the domestic world, their intellectual

The American Revolution was a stepping-stone towards helping to change women’s role in society. Women of the Republic explains to readers the radicalism that Republican Mothers had a hand in during the creation of America at the time of the Revolution. Kerber shows that the American Revolution was able to help ignite the alterations that women were fighting for to prove that they belonged equally on the side of men. The ideology of the Republican Motherhood was able to provide proof from the letters, diaries, and records kept to show the participation of the women who helped establish the important role they played in society for women

This is proven in the Discussion of Women’s Political Clubs and their Suppression. On October 30th 1793, Jean-Baptiste Amar spoke for the Committee of General Security and put forward a decree to suppress all women’s political clubs, the decree passed with virtually no rebuttal. The reason there was no rebuttal is because the majority of the Convention saw women as troublesome, as Philippe Fabre d’Elantine expresses in his speech: “There have already been troubles about the cockade; you have decreed that women should wear it. Now they ask for the red cap. They will not rest there…” Amar continues the dismantling of women’s capabilities when he says, “In general, women are hardly capable of lofty conceptions and serious cogitations…” As one can see, through suppression, there is an obvious attempt at fulfilling the revolutionary principle of

The roles of women in the french Revolutionary War and the French and American War have many differences and similarities. Woman in these wars couldn’t do a lot for their families. But they still had gone out to help the suffrage for women.

The French Revolution brought with it many sweeping changes in the realm of human rights both to France and eventually the rest of the world. Through Enlightenment ideas, groups previously viewed as second-class citizens, and even those viewed as hardly human, gained greatly enhanced rights and even citizenship with all that this entailed. Amazingly with all the rights and privileges that were being recognized as inherent to various social groups, half the population was left with little or no improvement in their station. This, of course, refers to women. While there were those who fought for women's rights, such as Condorcet, Etta Palm D'Aelders, and Olympe De Gouges; these

Throughout much of history, women’s roles of being dutiful and respectful, quiet ladies guided them into a state of oppression and vulnerability. It was not until the Enlightenment that women began to exceed in different areas, finally beginning to be taken seriously as well as getting recognition for movements that they have been a part of. Up until then, the major role of women was to produce sons that would rise up and take financial care of a household, or daughters that would lead quiet and bashful lives once again repeating what the mother had once learned when she young. However, the fundamental roles of women during the French Revolution varied. There were many women who did not share common experiences and depending on their social class, these women’s involvements in different areas of the Revolution varied significantly.

One of the main women involved in the French Revolution was Olympe de Gouges. Olympe de Gouges is how one

The French Revolution was a time of cast conflict that dramatically altered the political and social order of France. Women during the revolution period had many roles including they're political involvement, donation of time to revolutionaries, and contributions to ideologies. However, with all the contributions, women were still victimized by the changes that occurred. While these roles had a huge impact on the equality between mean and women this impact did not last. Individuals such as Olympe de Gouges and Marie-Jean Roland inspired women to become involved in the revolution because of their significant political achievements that are still discussed today. Without the service and intelligence women