Landes Old Regime

“The Era of the Common Man” did not produce the change in mentality that the new national trading system produced because it only deals with the aftermath and the products of “the Market Revolution.” The role of women also plays a large part during the early nineteenth century that “the Era of the Common Man” completely ignores. Women were far from the Common Man since they did not have the right to vote nor sway a politician. However, Walter Licht brings forth in “Paths: The Unevenness of Early Industrial Development” how the role of women transformed from working in the house to working in factories.

‘Women of the Republic’ demonstrates the expanded role of women politically amidst the rising influence of their male counterparts in civic responsibility. Kerber states that the American Revolution provided a platform for women to express themselves away from ideological ferment that was premised on the confines of a family set up. This situation might perhaps explain why there were few women leaders during the period leading to the Revolution War. Kerber appears to place her concept of the Republican Motherhood to the industrialisation era that was characterized by fathers working away from their homes and leaving all the household

Bonheur was an important figure in women’s right; she herself reflects the social movement for women. She was a women that didn’t let society’s standards keep her down; she worked hard to build her career. Bonheur was the first woman in France to get a permit to wear pants.1 The police’s reasoning for allowing Rosa this permit was because of health, and her doctor co-signed the permit.1 The slaughterhouses and fairgrounds would dirty her dresses thus it was impractical for her to wear a dress. Bonheur was smart she knew what wearing pants would do to her career.1 She knew buyers would not purchase paintings that came from a woman who wore pants, so Bonheur would wear dresses to social events.

Carol Berkin clearly states her thesis in the introduction of Revolutionary Mothers. “Despite the absence of radical changes in gender ideology and gender roles for most women, the Revolution did lend legitimacy to new ideas about women’s capacities and their proper roles”. (Berkin 2005) In two thousand and fourteen it is questionable about how clearly women’s roles have changed especially in the areas of economics and politics at least it is obvious that the revolution did not bring equality.

Women took a more active role in the revolutionary process and rendered themselves useful in society (Henretta, 2009). Women’s status in the family, society, and politics had long been a subject of argument. The rights women had during this time were an issue for years. Women were viewed as “subordinate to males’ and were subject to laws and regulations imposed by men. However, the role of women and their political, economic, and social rights shifted greatly because of the revolution. Because they were responsible for marrying, raising families, and performing the duties of diligent wives and mothers, they took action and pursued to support the revolution. Women resolved to contribute to the liberation of their

However, as illustrated by eighteenth century-French theologian and moralist, Jacques-Joseph Duget, there was a perception of frivolous and licentious salon women in the seventeenth-century corrupting society, particularly by feminizing men. Salons in the eighteenth-century had evolved from this, now trying to revive society through the philosophes’ Republic of Letters.

Louise Halfe’s “Body Politics” challenges the qualities and behaviour of the idealized feminine woman by contrasting the stereotypical “city woman” with a more masculine “real woman.” The poem’s speaker describes her mother’s opinion of what it means to be a real woman, which is seen through “Mama said.” Throughout the poem, the speaker uses vivid imagery to create a stark contrast between the idealized feminine “city woman” and a “real woman” who does not conform to the feminine gender norm. To begin with, the title of the poem itself can be viewed as an obvious critique of the feminine ideal. By definition a body politic is a group of people “considered as a collective unit” (Merriam-Webster). This is significant because in Butler’s theory, she emphasizes that a person’s gender can vary depending on a given situation, and therefore women cannot be grouped together and defined exclusively by their feminine qualities. Instead, she argues that women should be viewed as individuals capable of possessing both masculine and feminine behaviour. This belief relates directly to the poem’s title, as Halfe is clearly making a statement on the manner in which patriarchal societies expect women to conform to a singular feminine ideal. Moreover, it illustrates how women’s bodies become a political site for the masculinist culture to impose feminine gender on. With consideration to the title’s reference to a homogeneous group of women, it is interesting that stanzas two through four all

In late 19th century Paris, cafés-concerts (best described as “glorified beer halls” (Clark 206)) were a very popular destination for the people of Paris. Cafés-concerts became an integral part of Parisian social life, as they were visited by hundreds of people each night, regardless of class. A bar at the Folies Bergère became the topic of Edouard Manet’s last painting, as Manet tried to portray the new, “modern” Paris, and the introduction of mass production during this time. A Marxist art historian, T.J. Clark finds this particular painting important because it revealed a lot about the new, modern Paris, and Manet’s intentions with the painting. Clark focuses more on the emergence of the new social class during this time, and how this affected the role of women in Paris. The painting, A bar at Folies Bergère, has historical significance because of how it depicts modernity in the context of the emergence of a new social class (the petite bourgeoisie), the introduction of mass production, and the changing role of women.

It must be said that men of power create the structure of life--which is not necessarily profitable or fitting to women, nor to the human race in its entirety. Women do not live in this structure:“They lead beautiful lives--women. Lives not only divorced from, but irrevocably excommunicated from, all reality” (156).

Women’s lives were shaped by the “Cult of true Womanhood” where the general belief of a “true” woman was based upon a variety of expectations from women in the 19th century. The criterion was that women should remain pious, pure, submissive and domestic. Women who were outspoken and who participated in public relations were unattractive to men. Women were part of the private sphere in which they took part in house duties and raising children. The status of women in society changed rapidly during the Progressive Era. Women sought job opportunities as clerical workers and others who were of good wealth took the opportunity to pursue a prominent

Women have been the most discriminated-against group of people in the entire history of humankind. They have been abused, held back in society, and oftentimes restricted to the home life, leading dull, meaningless lives while men make sure the world goes round. It seems strange that half of the world's population could be held down so long; ever since the dawn of humanity, women have been treated like second-class citizens. Only in the past 100 years or so have women started to win an equal place in society in the Western world. However, the fight for equality has not been a short one. The seeds of the liberation movement were planted hundreds of years ago, by free-thinking

At the end of the 18th century and during the 19th century, there were many changes to public ideology that affected the way that women perceived their roles in society. Prior to these changes, women had adopted the beliefs of separate “spheres” separating work into public life and their duties as mothers at home1. Women stayed at home to take care of the children and provide a warm, welcoming home for their husbands to take refuge from public life. Women became aware of their lack of legal and political power after the American Revolutionary War ended as they were denied the right to the same freedoms that granted the right to vote to the white, property-owning male population2. Despite granting women more liberty to run businesses, farms,

“Above all, perhaps, the rationalists of the eighteenth century aroused the social conscience of mankind and stimulated the humanitarianism.” The Enlightenment allowed a period of educational growth to begin. A new love for knowledge and debate sprung up throughout the century. Women joined in with the intellectual banter by starting salons. “If Voltaire transformed the thoughts, and Rousseau the feelings, of the eighteenth century, it was the salons of Paris that the new conceptions of ‘reason’ and ‘nature,’ of ‘free thought’ and the importance of the individual, were sifted, codified, and eventually imposed.” Women played a central role in the organization of these intellectual gatherings, holding them in their homes. They invited prominent, academically inclined men to join together to share ideas, in which the lady of the home regulated with agendas and topics. Women were able to be present when men spoke of the political, social, and

Britain’s nobility strove to prevent progressive change and opted for tradition. The upper classes of society utilized several mediums to oppress the working class and preserve the closing gap with the emergence of the middle class. For example, industrialization generated a huge demand for factory workers, and women were often desirable for they were perceived less than men and would earn a fraction of their male counterparts. Thus, although this marked a positive change for women to be self-sufficient backlash emerged funded by the upper classes of society to prevent change. Women were idealized as ‘angels of the house’ while being exposed to an arguable dystopian society for the working class. Also, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

With each letter in Les Liaisons dangereuses, Choderlos de Laclos advances a great many games of chess being played simultaneously. In each, the pieces—women of the eighteenth-century Parisian aristocracy—are tossed about mercilessly but with great precision on the part of the author. One is a pawn: a convent girl pulled out of a world of simplicity and offered as an entree to a public impossible to sate; another is a queen: a calculating monument to debauchery with fissures from a struggle with true love. By examining their similarities and differences, Laclos explores women’s constitutions in a world that promises ruin for even the most formidable among them. Presenting the reader glimpses of femininity from a young innocent’s daunting debut to a faithful woman’s conflicted quest for heavenly virtue to another’s ruthless pursuit of vengeance and earthly pleasures, he insinuates the harrowing journey undertaken by every girl as she is forced to make a name for herself as a woman amongst the tumult of a community that machinates at every turn her downfall at the hands of the opposite sex. In his careful presentation of the novel’s female characters, Laclos condemns this unrelenting subjugation of women by making clear that every woman’s fate in such a society is a definitive and resounding checkmate.