The Women's March on Versailles, October 5, 1789 • ISTOCK “Woman is born free and remains equal to man in rights. Social distinctions can only be based on common utility. Article 1 of the famous Declaration of the Rights of Women and Citizens , written in 1791 by the no less famous Olympe de Gouges, is today unanimously celebrated as one of the founding acts of the fight for gender equality. For some, nothing could be further from the truth. By proclaiming a facade of equality without having the means to apply it, the revolutionary period would, on the contrary, have deprived women of the special protections they enjoyed under the Ancien Régime, de facto reducing their situation. Whether black or gold, many legends remain attached to the history of this period. Farewell, the omnipotence of the father To answer this question, you actually have to ask another one:how did women live before 1789? Considered as minors, like other categories of the population, they were among the many subordinates of the society of orders. The 18 th century brought its "Enlightenment" only for rare women like Madame de Genlis, Madame du Deffand or Madame Roland, whose names we remember exaggeratedly and who, while emancipating themselves thanks to the worldliness of the salons, had to arrange their freedom within the frameworks of male society. But, for the majority of ordinary women, it was submission and obedience to men that marked their existence. However, the inferiority of women was not only a question of power relations:it was above all a legal reality which prevented them from inheriting, from participating in the activity of entire sectors of public life, placing them under the authority of their father and then, after marriage, of their husband. Because they affect the family, the basic cell of society, the laws passed between 1791 and 1794 go far beyond the foam of promises:they really transform the lives of millions of women after 1789. The Revolution opened up an unprecedented legal breach. Recognized as full members of the sovereign nation, women are, like men, protected by the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen . Above all, they saw their situation change thanks to the efforts of the first legislators to break the family patriarchy:on March 16 and 26, 1790, a law prohibited letters of cachet, which allowed husbands and fathers to lock up unwanted women and children. In August, the Assembly also established family courts, responsible for arbitrating family disputes, depriving fathers of their sometimes arbitrary omnipotence. As for the Penal Code of 1791, it removes the obligation of single or widowed women to declare their pregnancy under penalty of death. Above all, it decriminalized homosexuality:by contesting the virile order of male sexuality, the first revolutionaries thus indirectly improved the situation of women, who benefited from this relaxation of mores. Guardianship seems to be just a bad memory:women become independent at the age of 21, the age at which they gain full legal capacity for the first time. They now have the right to sign contracts, to go to court, to marry without parental consent and to act without the consent of a man. Passed between 1791 and 1794, the various inheritance laws place women on an equal footing with the sons of families. Because they affect the family, the basic cell of society, these measures go well beyond the foam of promises:they really transform the lives of millions of women after 1789. On September 20, 1792, the law on the divorce gives them the right to freely enter into and end the marriage, now considered a civil and above all reciprocal act between two autonomous individuals. Also read Being a woman in the Middle Ages, an apparent submission Immediately, thousands of women seized the right and regained their freedom. Under the Directory (1795-1799), reciprocity and affection between spouses became models of the Republican couple. The omnipotence of the husband seems to belong to the past. Requested by many women, female education projects are multiplying. In 1792, Condorcet plans to integrate them into the free education of primary and secondary schools, up to 13 years old. The following year, Félix Le Peletier plans to educate girls and boys together in a vast national education plan. In December 1793, women won the right to open schools, and many of them became teachers. When men are at war But women do not only “receive” new rights that men would have granted them:thanks to a Revolution that disrupts habits, some of them also gain new room for maneuver… without always having it. wanted or expected. By the simple fact of the absence of men, gone to fight, in hiding or in exile, when they are not imprisoned or executed, millions of ordinary women must manage businesses, administer estates, work land, take steps with the authorities to defend the cause of a loved one or a neighbour, hide counter-revolutionaries… A minority of them take political action:from the days of October 1789 to the great spring mobilizations 1795, it was often women who petitioned, who played the leading role in calls for insurrection, who smashed machines accused of aggravating unemployment, who denounced speculators, protested against the increase in prices of basic necessities or lower wages. Many women assiduously attend the trials, the public executions, but also the debates of the neighborhood assemblies, even of the National Assembly, not depriving themselves of intervening. Some created clubs, mixed or not, and, like the Republican Revolutionaries of Pauline Léon and Claire Lacombe, claimed the right to fight the enemies of the Revolution alongside men. In the opposite camp, women like Renée Bordereau, nicknamed "l'Angevin", defied sexual boundaries:dressed as a man, she joined the Catholic and Royal Army, and distinguished herself in particularly violent fights. . Stop the furies of the guillotine However, barely sketched, the promises vanish. By weakening sexual hierarchies and gender boundaries, the Revolution provoked a strong male reaction. Reaffirmed on 1 st October 1789, the Salic law is toughened compared to the Ancien Régime, since it excludes women from the regency:the repulsion inspired by Marie-Antoinette and the women of the court in the camp of the patriots reinforces the masculinity of power . In the summer of 1793, the assassination of the deputy and journalist Marat by the young Charlotte Corday, an unknown woman from Normandy, released negative fantasies against women who "overstepped their sex". Clichés on the "furies of the guillotine" are multiplying, denouncing the political pretensions of women. In the spring of 1793, women were banned from the armies. On October 29, at the Paris Commune, Gaspard Chaumette appealed to the "laws of nature" to exclude women from public life. The next day, at the National Convention, the deputy Amar added:“Each sex is called to a kind of occupation of its own; his action is circumscribed in this circle which he cannot cross. Women's clubs were immediately banned, and some of them were closed to cries of "Down with revolutionary women!" » During the Empire (1804-1815) and the Restoration (1815-1830), the return to political and social order was coupled with a return to sexual order. With the Civil Code of 1804, women again become legal minors:article 213 thus states that “the husband owes protection to his wife, the wife obedience to her husband”. Guardianship returns:women can no longer manage their property alone and are more punished in the event of adultery. Twelve years later, in 1816, divorce by mutual consent was abolished. As in many other areas, the Revolution was in short a complex period:if it enabled many women to extricate themselves from the constraints of the patriarchal society of the Ancien Régime, it did so only very partially and without really challenge the male order, considered "natural". However, she left an important legacy, which the first feminists of the contemporary era, in the 1830s, were able to grasp. Find out more Women and the Revolution. 1789-1794, PM Duhet, Gallimard, 1978.The Broken Revolt. Women in the French Revolution and the Empire, J.-C. Martin, Armand Colin, 2008.Citizen Knitters, D. Godineau, Perrin, 2004. Olympe de Gouges, the misunderstanding Olympe de Gouges embodies the misunderstanding that still exists today about female emancipation during the Revolution. Author of the famous Declaration of the Rights of Women and Citizens in 1791, she is celebrated today as a pioneer of current feminist struggles, so much so that her name is regularly proposed for the Pantheon. Known for her positions in favor of the "minorities" of the society of orders, she is committed to the abolition of slavery and to gender equality. However, her echo is weak among her contemporaries, who, rather than political rights, prefer to claim access to education or focus on economic and social inequalities. In reality, Olympe de Gouges is a contrasting figure. Conservative, opposed to the Republic, she condemned insurrections and popular violence, as well as the revolt of the slaves of Santo Domingo in 1791. Like many women of her time, she often remained a prisoner of male cadres.
