Role of Women in French Revolution

Role of women in French Revolution will inspire future generations of women to never give up. Let us read everything about the struggles of the French Women and discuss the role of women in French Revolution.

From the very beginning women were active participants in the events which brought about so many important changes in French society. They hoped that their involvement would pressurize the revolutionary government to introduce measures to improve their lives.

Most women of the third estate had to work for a living. They worked as seamstresses or laundresses, sold flowers, fruits and vegetables at the market, or were employed as domestic servants in the houses of prosperous people.

Role of women in French Revolution and their struggle

Most women did not have access to education or job training. Only daughters of nobles or wealthier members of the third estate could study at a convent, after which their families arranged a marriage for them.

Working women had also to care for their families, that is, cook, fetch water, queue up for bread and look after the children.

Their wages were lower than those of men. In order to discuss and voice their interests women started their own political clubs and newspapers.

French Women & the Role of Women in French Revolution

About sixty women’s clubs came up in different French cities. The Society of Revolutionary and Republican Women was the most famous of them. One of their main demands was that women enjoy the same political rights as men.

Women were disappointed that the Constitution of 1791 reduced them to passive citizens. They demanded the right to vote, to be elected to the Assembly and to hold political office. Only then, they felt, would their interests be represented in the new government.

In the early years, the revolutionary government did introduce laws that helped improve the lives of women. Together with the creation of state schools, schooling was made compulsory for all girls. Their fathers could no longer force them into marriage against their will. Marriage was made into a contract entered into freely and registered under civil law. Divorce was made legal, and could be applied for by both women and men. Women could now train for jobs, could become artists or run small businesses.

Role of Women in French Revolution for equal political rights

Women’s struggle for equal political rights, however, continued. During the Reign of Terror, the new government issued laws ordering closure of women’s clubs and banning their political activities. Many prominent women were arrested and a number of them executed.

Women’s movements for voting rights and equal wages continued through the next two hundred years in many countries of the world. The fight for the vote was carried out through an international suffrage movement during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

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189 Questions of the French Revolution

The example of the political activities of French women during the revolutionary years was kept alive as an inspiring memory.

It was finally in 1946 that women in France won the right to vote.