Women at the Jacobins
An observer of Jacobin club meetings in 1791, in the passage below, describes somewhat disorderly debates, in which speakers are shouted down from the rostrum and women participate openly. This is indicative of what this author sees as the "ungovernable" situation in Paris.
August 17th.
The hall in which the Jacobins meet, is fitted up nearly in the same style with that of the National Assembly. The tribune, or pulpit from which the members speak, is opposite to that in which the president is seated: there is a table for the secretaries and galleries for a large audience of both sexes, in the one as in the other. Men are appointed, who walk through the hall to command, or rather solicit, silence when the debate becomes turbulent at the club of Jacobins, in the same manner as the huissiers do at the National Assembly, and usually with as little effect: the bell of the president, and voices of the huissiers, are equally disregarded in stormy debates at both Assemblies.
I have been told that some of the most distinguished members in point of talent and character, have lately with drawn from this society, and that it is not now on such a respectable footing as it has been. Robespierre, who was a member of the Constituent Assembly, and of course cannot be of the present, has great sway in the club of Jacobins, by which means his influence in the Assembly, and in the common council of Paris, is very considerable.
There was not, properly speaking, a debate at the Jacobins to-day, but rather a series of violent speeches against him. I understand indeed, that of late the speakers are generally of one opinion; for Robespierre's partisans raise such a noise when any one attempts to utter sentiments opposite to what he is known to maintain, that the voice of the speaker is drowned, and he is obliged to yield the tribune to another orator whose doctrine is more palatable.
There were abundance of women in the galleries; but as there were none in the body of the hall where the members are seated, I was surprised to see one enter and take her seat among them: she was dressed in a kind of English riding-habit, but her jacket was the uniform of the national guards. On enquiry, I was informed that the name of this amazon is Mademoiselle Theroigne: she distinguished herself in the action of the 10th, by rallying those who fled, and attacking a second time at the head of the Marseillois.
She seems about one or two and thirty, is somewhat above the middle size of women, and has a smart martial air, which in a man would not be disagreeable.
I walked home about nine: the night was uncommonly dark, my way lay across the Carousel, along the Pont Royal to the fauxbourg St. Germain. I have frequently come the same way alone from the Caffé de Foy in the Palais Royal after it was dark. I never was attacked, nor have I heard of a single street robbery, or house-breaking, since I have been in Paris.
This seems to me very remarkable, in the ungovernable state in which Paris may be supposed to be since the 10th of this month.
Source: John Moore, Mordaunt: Sketches of Life, Characters and Manners in Various Countries, including the Memoirs of a French Lady (London: 1800).
Why do you think women were so importan in the French Revolution?
What was their ideological position?
Can you provide any other name of an important feminine leader in the revolution?
Who were the Cordeliers?
Who were the Jacobines?
Who were the Giroundines?
Please, express your ideas in an essay
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Until the French Revolution, women in France were always considered inferior than men: they lack of many important rights, such as education and political participation. Although some women from the Nobility’s opinions were taken into account, most of the time they were treated as second-class citizens.
Things would change, however, with the general unhappiness and the revolutionary tendencies that invaded the French society during 1789. Women did not stay behind, for many of them were seriously involved in the revolts and they even took part in the conquest of the “Bastille”. The opportunity to reclaim for their rights had come, and women of every social class participated fervently.
One of the most distinctive women of this period was Manon Roland, who belonged to the bourgeoisie like her husband Jean. They represented the Girondins –at the beginning known as the Brissotis-, who wanted to organise a bourgeoisie republic and to expand the revolution to the whole Europe. Manon and Jean participated in many debates as leaders of the Girondins. However, there was a woman whose passion and strong convincement finally caused her death: Charlotte Corday. She descended from a noble family and joined the Girondins in 1793. Charlotte was sure that Marat was their main enemy, so she made a decision and stabbed him through the heart while he was in his bath. She was arrested and, finally, guillotined at the Place de la Révolution when she was twenty five years old.
The peasants also had some representative and strong women, who claimed for better life conditions. They belonged to the sans-culottes, the poor people. Their way of protesting, for instance, was very different from that of the Girondins. The sans-culottes were more violent, as they participated in revolts in the streets and at the National Legislature. In 1793 they created the “Society of Revolutionary Republican Women”, leaded by Claire Lacombe and Pauline Leon.
As for the Jacobins, women formed auxiliaries for local Jacobin clubs, created independent women’s clubs, participated in civic festivals and did public relief work. Etta Palm D’Aelders was one of the first women who proposed to form women’s clubs, in order to administer welfare programs in Paris. However, the Jacobins wanted to exclude women from public debate and action, for they thought that they should be in charge of their homes and nothing more.
The secret of perfection, not only in the individual but also in society, reminds in the androgynous way of thinking and acting.
But this was not the French reality by the XVIII century. France had a masculine position as well as masculine social leaders. Women were considered inferior and had no political participation.
However women were planning their own objectives to change their position in society.
Women were demanding legal equality in marriage; educational opportunities for girls, including vocational training; public instruction, licensing, and support for midwives; guarantees for women's rights to employment; an end to the exclusion of women from certain professions; and even the right to bear arms.
These were their true intentions of the revolution, and their strong female desires combined with the male power of acting ended in the bloody but necessary dramatic change not only in France but in the whole world.
The Girondins were the more conservative faction and the Montagnards (mountain) were the more left faction of the revolutionary Jacobin forces.
The Girondins wanted bourgeois power but feared the masses.
Theroigne de Mericourt was a member of the Girondins and is remembered for her participation in the Women's March on Versaille in October 1789. She had been at the forefront of the 12-mile march in the rain to confront Louis XVI. She was a colorful figure and the image of her riding a horse, wearing men's clothing with pistols shoved into the waistband of her trousers and waving a sword became a popular French Icon.
In 1793 the femme sans-culottes formed the Society of Revolutionary Republican Women, the first political interest group for common women in Western history. Claire Lacombe, an actor, and Pauline Leon, a chocolate maker, founded the organization.
These two leaders leaded an organized movement of women to the Enrages--the most extreme representatives on the left for the interest of the sans-culottes.
This was a historically important institution representing the organized political influence of the most downtrodden women.
With out the influence of women in the French revolution it wouldn’t have been so important, and it is shown how women and men gathering their efforts can make extreme changes becoming unstoppable.
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