Women's Rights In The French Revolution

I believe that the French Revolution was not revolutionary to the rights of Women. Either Socially or Politically. The French Revolution is often seen as an uprising of the Lower Class of French peasants against the Aristocratic Bourgeois ruling class of 18th Century France. And while this uprising allowed for more rights of Women, the rights were only in effect during the time of The Revolution and went away with the establishment of the Napoleonic Law code of 1804. Although it can be argued that the advent of the French Revolution did at least in the beginning establish new freedoms for women that were not present in the Absolute Monarchial rule that preceded The Revolution. Historians such as R.B Rose Author of Feminism, Women and French
Revolution argue that these freedoms were very miniscule in nature. Rose gives us the example of the passing of the French Revolutionary Constitution of 1791 and she states it “made women citizens of a kind, if only passive citizens unable to vote or stand for public office.” Rose then goes on to state that even Constitutions like this one and others would eventually be overturned by the “Napoleonic Law Code of 1804”. Rose goes on in her Article to state that other such rights that women had gained through the French Revolutionary Constitution of 1791 would be just as easily plucked away as soon as Napoleon became Emperor.
Another such right that she discusses is the Right of “Divorce”. And more specifically the right of the Woman to divorce the man. Rose goes on to talk about how Women were for the first time able to divorce their husbands on a “number of special grounds including lunacy, desertion, injuries, condemnation as a criminal”. Although Rose states all these ways in which women gained more status societal as well as political her ultimate focus Is the same point in which I have come to determine in my readings of the various Articles assigned to me, that even though Women gained these rights. They were if anything temporary. As stated by Rose in her article “The Napoleonic Law Code of 1804 proclaimed a uniform regime of Patriarchy which entrenched again most of the oppressive features of the chaotic family law of the old Regime”. Showing that the ideas of freedom and hope for the rights of Women that bloomed out of the French Revolution were crushed along with any other forms of hope for human rights that might have come out of the Revolt of the lower class
peasants.
The French Revolution played a pivotal turning point.
Not only in the History of France, but also in world history as well. Ideologies stemming from this time period would help to later overthrow the oppressive Napoleonic Government that was put in place, and eventually lead to a Democratic state that the French so yearned for. Documents such as Olympe De Gouge’s Declaration of The Rights of Woman would lay the groundwork for the modern feminism movement. And although women during this time period only saw a temporary taste of Freedom, they would eventually gain the rights in which they fought for. But the battle would be a long hard one, and it was this small temporary victory that would help to later turn the tide. Although as I have stated in previous pages that I believe the French Revolution did not gain any more rights for women necessarily, I do believe that The Revolution sparked a greater sense of pride amongst women and they were better able to come up with a better identity of what it exactly meant to be a woman in this time period, as well as a woman overall. When I look at De Gouge’s Declaration of The Rights of Woman I see a woman not envisioned with fear, but a woman who is encompassed with great pride and overall a pretty good idea of her own self-worth. This idea I believe was prominent amongst women during this time period, and I believe that this knowledge of self-worth would give women the confidence in coming years to be more independent and to better
prepared to fight the oppressive patriarchy. This idea resonates in such texts as Claire de Duras’s book titled Ourika. In this book Duras talks about the struggles of a former slave who is freed and comes to live in France during the French Revolution. I believe That Duras got the confidence to write this book from the ideologies that were prominent in the generation before her during the French Revolution. This book not only highlights what being a slave was like during the French Revolution but also what it was like to be a woman during this time. And even more so in my opinion it shows that the confidence obtained from the French Revolution would carry on in many generations of women after the Revolution. Until women were able to get the freedoms that they fought so hard to earn.