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Comparison of Female Commoner and Marie Antionette Editorial. A Female Urban
Woman/Commoner from France; Written sometime after the ...
Submitted by Gangstaliciouz on March 11, 2008
Category: History Other
Words: 1126 | Pages: 5
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A Female Urban Woman/Commoner from France;
Written sometime after the Revolution
Women were just about the only traditionally oppressed group in the Revolution who didn't, at some time, make phenomenal strides towards freedom and equality. The sans-culottes, Protestants, Jews, blacks, even actors were at some time allowed to vote. Women were not allowed to vote. Let's just face it; life's not fair.
Nevertheless, from the start we urban women of Paris played a large role in the unfolding of the Revolution. Since we had mouths to feed at home, any fluctuation in bread price affected us very deeply. And we were ready to riot about that. It was a mob of fishwives, who brought the royal family to Paris on 6th October; having marched to Versailles the day before, demanding that "the Baker" bring bread to the starving Parisian population. We women were active in the galleries of the National Assembly, always ready to plead their hunger and demand action.
We women also fought to obtain some of the democratic blessings of the Revolution for ourselves. In response to "Rights of Man and Citizen", a prominent woman of letters and abolitionist Olympe de Gouges wrote "Rights of Woman and Citizen" in 1791. To us, this was a document that called for the same suffrage, property and civil rights to apply to us as to men. Simultaneously, Mary Wollstonecraft, an English radical mother, wrote the Vindication of the Rights of Women. It was a work so far ahead of its time in demanding suffrage and common-law marriages, among other things, that it foreshadowed the feminist movement of our century. Although these documents were to remain only ideals, we did make some small steps forward. In 1790, the Dutch baroness Etta d'Palme won the right for us women to file divorces. The Paris Commune declared spousal abuse a crime.
When war broke out, we patriotic women were eager to take up arms to fight for our country. The Amazons, a Parisian militia,...
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