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
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" [1], 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.
The Commune
Some women organized a feminist movement during the Commune, following on from earlier attempts in 1789 and 1848. Thus, Nathalie Lemel, a socialist bookbinder, and Élisabeth Dmitrieff, a young Russian exile and member of the Russian section of the First International (IWA), created the Union des femmes pour la défense de Paris et les soins aux blessés ("Women's Union for the Defense of Paris and Care of the Injured") on 11 April 1871. The feminist writer André Léo, a friend of Paule Minck, also was active in the Women's Union. Believing that their struggle against patriarchy could only be followed in the frame of a global struggle against capitalism, the association demanded gender-equality, wages' equality, right of divorce for women, right to secular education and for professional education for girls. They also demanded suppression of the distinction between married women and concubines, between legitimate and natural children, the abolition of prostitution (obtaining the closing of the maisons de tolérance, or legal official brothels). The Women's Union also participated in several municipal commissions and organized cooperative workshops.[2] Along with Eugène Varlin, Nathalie Le Mel created the cooperative restaurant La Marmite, which served free food for indigents, and then fighted during the Bloody Week on the barricades [3] On the other hand, Paule Minck opened a free school in the Church of Saint Pierre de Montmartre, and animated the Club Saint-Sulpice on the Left Bank [3]. The Russian Anne Jaclard, who declined to marry Dostoievsky and finally became the wife of Blanquist activist Victor Jaclard, founded with André Léo the newspaper La Sociale. She was also a member of the Comité de vigilance de Montmartre, along with Louise Michel and Paule Minck, as well as of the Russian section of the First International. Victorine Brocher, close to the IWA activists, and founder of a cooperative bakerie in 1867, also fought during the Commune and the Bloody Week [3].
Famous figures such as Louise Michel, the "Red Virgin of Montmartre" who joined the National Guard and would later be sent to New Caledonia, symbolize the active participation of a small number of women in the insurrectionary events. A female battalion from the National Guard defended the Place Blanche during the repression.
French Feminism
The Anglo-Saxon world refers to literary works by French feminists of the 1970s as "French Feminism".
References
- ^ Daniel Guérin, La lutte des classes, 1946 Template:Fr icon
- ^ Women and the Commune, in L'Humanité, 19 March 2005 Template:Fr icon
- ^ a b c François Bodinaux, Dominique Plasman, Michèle Ribourdouille. "On les disait 'pétroleuses'..." Template:Fr icon
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
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