In fact, it would be fair to say that French women played a key role in shaping the Revolution from 1789-1793. Political leaders such as Madame Roland and Madame de Stael took the public stage, and women’s clubs such as the Society of Revolutionary Republican Women became more common.
Revolutionary Women: Charlotte Corday and Marianne
In addition, two of the most dramatic events of the Revolution involved women. First, in 1789, Parisian women of the lower classes convinced women of all classes to march to Versailles and seize the king and queen.
Second, four years later, Charlotte Corday became infamous for her assassination of the key Jacobin leader Marat. The London Times of July 30, 1793 reported that Corday’s deportment during her interrogation and execution was “calm, decent, and unaffected,” and that the crowds who witnessed the execution were “less impressed with the recollection of her crime, than of her courage and beauty.”
The figure of Liberty was often portrayed as a woman in a toga, and ultimately, the most famous rendering of Liberty as a representation of the French Republic came to be called “Marianne.” Such images and events must have been thrilling spectacles for many women across Europe who were already captivated by the Revolution and its potential.
Backlash against Revolutionary Women
However, these images did not play well in England, and even in France, for we see the elimination of all women’s clubs as the Terror began in 1793, and women again were relegated to more private roles. In fact, the London Times of January 25, 1793 reported that “all women were prohibited from appearing in the streets” as Louis XVI was taken to his execution.
The same backlash followed across the English Channel, though in a more subtle manner. In England, the prominent role of women in the Revolution was an affront to established views, and the writer of a 1793 ballad called “A Word to the Wise” effectively sums up many of his countrymen’s views:
"But our ladies are virtuous, our ladies are fair,
Which is more than they tell us your French-women are;
They know they are happy, they know they are free,
And know Liberty’s not to be found on a tree."
The Final Revolution: British Women Writers
With the end of Frenchwomen's involvement on the political stage, women writers in England, such as Mary Wollstonecraft and Anna Letitia Barbauld, took up the torch of revolution and wrote polemical essays on politics and society.
The legacy of women and the French Revolution lives on today with the image of Marianne, which commonly appears on contemporary French stamps. Thus, the words "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity," the slogan of the Revolution, endure in this female icon.
References:
Doyle, William. The Oxford History of the French Revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.
Sara Dustin - Sara Dustin is a Ph.D. student and university instructor. As an undergraduate, she double majored in English and history at Presbyterian ...
