Women in the French Revolution
Introduction
The French Revolution occurred 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. Many changes have occurred during the French Revolution, including changes in their economy, education, taxation, voting, serfdom, the church, freedom of speech, and human rights. In 1799, the French started a revolution against their matriarchal government because they wanted a republic. The people of France were very dissatisfied with their king and staged a very bloody revolution to free themselves from his atrocious rule. For women, this was a rough period of time for them. They had a very little rights and were treated only as second-class citizens. In the beginning of this revolution, many women of France decided to take a peaceful route and petitioned the king for basic and necessary rights, such as an education. Today, we consider these rights normal, almost as if they have always been granted to women, but without the acts of the brave women in France, women today might not even have these rights.
The French Revolution occurred 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. Many changes have occurred during the French Revolution, including changes in their economy, education, taxation, voting, serfdom, the church, freedom of speech, and human rights. In 1799, the French started a revolution against their matriarchal government because they wanted a republic. The people of France were very dissatisfied with their king and staged a very bloody revolution to free themselves from his atrocious rule. For women, this was a rough period of time for them. They had a very little rights and were treated only as second-class citizens. In the beginning of this revolution, many women of France decided to take a peaceful route and petitioned the king for basic and necessary rights, such as an education. Today, we consider these rights normal, almost as if they have always been granted to women, but without the acts of the brave women in France, women today might not even have these rights.
Petition of Women of the Third Estate to the King
One of the early women’s rights movement, yet still an important one, occurred during the French Revolution, in which the women were asking for an education, which, at the time, was a very bold statement, but the women chose their words carefully to make it seem like a simple request. The “Petition of Women of the Third Estate to the King”, was a petition written by a group of women to the King. It was written on 1st January, 1789 in respectful, polite terms and carefully pleaded for, most notably, an education for women in France. With this education, the women proved that they would be “better workers, better wives, and better mothers.” (Petition) This was very clever because it appealed to the men at the time; it appealed to their desire for better mothers for their sons and their desire to have their wives to do more work around the house so they would not have to. This clever use of words masked the gravity of their request and made it much more appealing to the men who, ultimately, got to make the decision. The “Petition of Women of the Third Estate to the King” changed the ideals of what women strive to be. Before the French Revolution, what was perceived to be a “good” woman was to stay home and raise the family, take care of the children, while man would go out and serve the country. After the petition was introduced, women during the French Revolution started to break free from the chains of motherhood, which were initially tied to them by men.
One of the early women’s rights movement, yet still an important one, occurred during the French Revolution, in which the women were asking for an education, which, at the time, was a very bold statement, but the women chose their words carefully to make it seem like a simple request. The “Petition of Women of the Third Estate to the King”, was a petition written by a group of women to the King. It was written on 1st January, 1789 in respectful, polite terms and carefully pleaded for, most notably, an education for women in France. With this education, the women proved that they would be “better workers, better wives, and better mothers.” (Petition) This was very clever because it appealed to the men at the time; it appealed to their desire for better mothers for their sons and their desire to have their wives to do more work around the house so they would not have to. This clever use of words masked the gravity of their request and made it much more appealing to the men who, ultimately, got to make the decision. The “Petition of Women of the Third Estate to the King” changed the ideals of what women strive to be. Before the French Revolution, what was perceived to be a “good” woman was to stay home and raise the family, take care of the children, while man would go out and serve the country. After the petition was introduced, women during the French Revolution started to break free from the chains of motherhood, which were initially tied to them by men.
Primary Source: "Petition of Women of the Third Estate to the King"
Morality
Beauty was presented as the only difference between two women. During the French Revolution, a woman’s value was measured by her ability to attract male’s attention. If a woman was born beautiful, they will be forced into marriage usually with a rich man, whereas, if a woman was born ugly, she will be forced into poverty. In the petition, it was stated that “if, on the contrary, they are born pretty, without breeding, without principles, with no idea of morals, they become the prey of the first seducer, commit a first sin, come to Paris to bury their shame, end by losing it altogether, and die victims of dissolute ways.” (Petition) This phrase means that beauty is not everything and that education is also important. When a woman is educated, they learn morals and principles, and this statement showed that French women lacked many morals. Women during the French Revolution thought that there were only two ways to live a safe and sustainable life, which were to get married or to be a prostitute. Women were taught to look up to their own mothers, to be a good mother, to raise their children well, and to serve their husbands right. No woman was taught to fight for their own rights, or to think for themselves. In the “Petition of Women of the Third Estate to the King”, women wanted the King to set up free schools so that they can learn their language, principles, religion, and ethics. The women of France in the French Revolution did not fight for education rights for only themselves, they also required to give the younger generation, no matter boys or girls, to be educated in order to serve the King better. “We ask to take leave of ignorance, to give our children a sound and reasonable education so as to make of them subjects worthy of serving you.” (Petition)
Liberty
While most women strived for educational rights during the French Revolution, some women did have an education and aided those already in the fight for woman’s right. One of these women was Olympe de Gouges, who wrote a separate document called the “Declaration of Rights of Women”. Olympe de Gouges was a self-educated woman, a French playwright and a political activist. The document that she wrote was essentially a rewrite of the “Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen,” but she wrote about women in hers. The term “citizen” becomes more widely used, instead of gender specific titles. A country contains both men and women, and Olympe de Gouges stated in her document that everyone in a country deserves to have rights, including the women in France. In article X of the document, Gouges wrote that “No one is to be disquieted for his very basic opinions; woman has the right to mount the scaffold; she must equally have the right to mount the rostrum, provided that her demonstrations do not disturb the legally established public order.” (Gouges) This called for the education of women and the rights a woman deserves, as human beings, to have the ability to reason and to think for themselves. Without an education, women lacked the ability to reason, which then caused the men in the society to treat them like second-class citizens. This also caused men in France to take advantages of the women. For many years, men had cloaked their unjust actions with “justice”, and women were to believe the men, because they had no education to know what was right or wrong and therefore, they had no concept of what real justice was. These women claimed that if they were educated, then they would be able to help make decisions in society and would have an equal view of justice as men did.
Equality
Equality was another concept that women in the French Revolution desired and fought for. In the petition, women wanted the rights to vote. Women’s “education was very neglected or very defective: it consists in their being sent to school with a teacher who himself does not know the first word of the language [Latin] he teaches.” (Petition). The fact that the male teacher himself did not know how to read or write Latin well, shows that many, if not most, men of the third estate did not have much more of an education than the women at the time. Therefore, the basis for the French to deny rights on the basis of reason is void. If they were to do this, by this logic, only a small minority of brilliant educated men should vote, and the rest of the uneducated male population should be equal to women, without rights and citizenship. Another thing women requested in the “Petition of Women of the Third Estate to the King”, was that they wanted to be treated as equal as men, they wanted to have work opportunities just as the men in the society did, but they only wanted these jobs if they passed a strict examination. They did not want an easy way to get a job just because they were women, they wanted to be treated as the men were, so that they would be able to sustain themselves. They did not want to be seen as a “crowd of unfortunate women who overpopulate the streets and whose debauched audacity disgraces our sex and the men who keep them company.” (Petition) However, according to Louis-Marie Prudhomme, a popular French journalist and publisher, for the newspaper Révolutions de Paris, he wrote that a woman’s only job was to stay home and take care of their children. On the 12th February 1791, Prudhomme wrote a newspaper article based on the criticisms women of France made about the Revolution. In the article, Prudhomme claimed that women were nothing but disasters, and he used Queen Marie Antoinette as an example to support his own ideas that women should never be involved in politics, “We saw his successor [Louis XVI] share with the public his infatuation with a young, lively, and frivolous princess [Marie Antoinette], who began by shaking off the yoke of etiquette as if practicing for one day shattering that of the laws… she profited from her ascendancy over little things to interfere in great ones and to influence the destiny of an entire people.” (Prudhomme) Queen Marie Antoinette, who was constantly involved in scandal, represented the threats, conscious, and unconscious, that could be posed to the Republic. She had the ability conceal her true emotions, and to act one way in public and another way in private. According to the author, Lynn Huntt of “The Many Bodies of Marie-Antoinette: Political Pornography and the Problem of the Feminine in the French Revolution,” he argued that the Queen’s body was like a mask, and her abilities threaten the new French nation, because the queen’s body symbolized not just the basic plan of counterrevolutionary of Paris, but also the danger of feminine and the effeminizing of manhood. Therefore, Louis-Marie Prudhomme thought that women should not be involved in political issues, due to past incidents that happened in France.
Conclusions
In conclusions, the “Petition of Women of the Third Estate to the King” was a important part of the women’s rights movement during the French Revolution. The petition was not the only act of women’s rights throughout the French Revolution, there were others acts as well, and if women during this time did not have the courage to stand up for themselves, France today would still deprive women of their rights. The women wanted education, equality, liberty, and enlightenment. They were tired of what society portrayed them as, and wanted to be free from their chains of motherhood that had tied to them by the men for so long. The chains locked the women’s freedom to vote, freedom of speech, education, and told that their only duties were to serve the men and take care of their families. Unfortunately, during the French Revolution, many Frenchmen in France were not as well educated as they thought they were. If women in the French Revolution did not fight for their own rights, the continuation of their deprivation would only lead to wrong decisions making, discrimination against women around the world, lower education, less job opportunities, sexism, immoral population, and low economy in France.
In conclusions, the “Petition of Women of the Third Estate to the King” was a important part of the women’s rights movement during the French Revolution. The petition was not the only act of women’s rights throughout the French Revolution, there were others acts as well, and if women during this time did not have the courage to stand up for themselves, France today would still deprive women of their rights. The women wanted education, equality, liberty, and enlightenment. They were tired of what society portrayed them as, and wanted to be free from their chains of motherhood that had tied to them by the men for so long. The chains locked the women’s freedom to vote, freedom of speech, education, and told that their only duties were to serve the men and take care of their families. Unfortunately, during the French Revolution, many Frenchmen in France were not as well educated as they thought they were. If women in the French Revolution did not fight for their own rights, the continuation of their deprivation would only lead to wrong decisions making, discrimination against women around the world, lower education, less job opportunities, sexism, immoral population, and low economy in France.
GALLERY
Works Cited
Primary source
""Petition of Women of the Third Estate to the King" (1 January 1789)." "Petition of Women of the Third Estate to the King" (1 January 1789). N.p., n.d. Web. Apr. 2014. <https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/472/>.
Secondary sources
Gouges, Olympe De. "Declaration of the Rights of Woman, 1791." Declaration of the Rights of Woman, 1791. N.p., n.d. Web. Apr. 2014. <http://csivc.csi.cuny.edu/americanstudies/files/lavender/decwom2.html>.
Prudhomme, Louis-Marie. "Prudhomme, "On the Influence of the Revolution on Women" (12 February 1791)." Prudhomme, "On the Influence of the Revolution on Women" (12 February 1791). N.p., n.d. Web. Apr. 2014. <http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/483/>.
""Petition of Women of the Third Estate to the King" (1 January 1789)." "Petition of Women of the Third Estate to the King" (1 January 1789). N.p., n.d. Web. Apr. 2014. <https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/472/>.
Secondary sources
Gouges, Olympe De. "Declaration of the Rights of Woman, 1791." Declaration of the Rights of Woman, 1791. N.p., n.d. Web. Apr. 2014. <http://csivc.csi.cuny.edu/americanstudies/files/lavender/decwom2.html>.
Prudhomme, Louis-Marie. "Prudhomme, "On the Influence of the Revolution on Women" (12 February 1791)." Prudhomme, "On the Influence of the Revolution on Women" (12 February 1791). N.p., n.d. Web. Apr. 2014. <http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/483/>.
Presillyn Tan |
Western Traditions II |
Spring 2014 |