Feminism in France

Feminism in France founds its origins in the French Revolution. A few famous figures emerged during the 1871 Paris Commune, among whom Louise Michel, Russian-born Elisabeth Dmitrieff, Nathalie Lemel and Renée Vivien.

French Revolution

Further information: French Revolution

In November 1789, at the very beginning of the Revolution, a Women's Petition was adressed to the National Assembly. However, it was not discussed. Although various feminist movements emerged during the Revolution, most politicans stood on Rousseau's bases outlined in L'Emile, which confined women to the role of mothers and spouses. Condorcet was a notable exception to the rule.

Claude Dansart founded in 1790 the Société fraternelle de l'un et l'autre sexe (Fraternal Society of one and the other Sex), which included Etta Palm d'Aelders, Jacques Hébert, Louise-Félicité de Kéralio, Pauline Léon, Théroigne de Méricourt, Manon Roland, Talien and Merlin de Thionville. The following year, Olympe de Gouges published the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen, a letter adressed to Queen Marie Antoinette which requested actions in favour of women's rights. Gouges ended up guillotined.

In February 1793, Pauline Léon and Claire Lacombe created the Société des républicaines révolutionnaires (Society of Revolutionary Republicans — the final "e" implicitly refering to Republican Women), which boasted 200 exclusively female members. Qualified by the historian Daniel Guérin as a sort of "feminist section of the Enragés" , they participated to the fall of the Girondins. Lacombe advocated arming of the women. The Society, however, was outlawed by the revolutionary government on the following year.

French Feminism

Main article: French Feminism

The Anglo-Saxon world refers to literary works by French feminists of the 1970s as "French Feminism".

Further readings

• Marie Cerati, Le club des citoyennes républicaines révolutionnaires, Paris, éd. sociales, 1966
• Marc de Villiers, Histoire des clubs de femmes et des légions d’Amazones (1793-1848-1871), Paris, Plon-Nourrit et cie, 1910