This book is organized around the personal struggles of ten extraordinary French women activists: Eugenie Niboyet, Eugenie Foa, Suzanne Voilquin, Josephine Bachellery, Pauline Roland, Jeanne Deroin, Elisa Lemonnier, Desiree Gay, Adele Esquiros, and Marie Noemie Constant. Ranging in age from 52 to 20 in 1848, coming from different economic backgrounds, these women share a common quest to be included in the economic and political rights won by the revolt against the July Monarchy.
Banding together in the face of exclusion from the right to work guaranteed to all men in February 1848, they write petitions to the Provisional Government, and create the first daily feminist newspaper, “La Voix des femmes.” The newspaper is a forum for their demands: midwives who demand to be paid as civil servants, domestic workers who demand support while unemployed, teachers who demand opportunities for higher education and for higher wages. The right to vote and the right to divorce are debated in the newspaper. Seeking to widen their support, Niboyet and her cohort launch a political club, Le Club de femmes, which is ridiculed in the satiric press. The women activists of 1848 do not withdraw from the public sphere. They form workers’ associations. Deroin and Roland are imprisoned for their activism. All continue to work for women’s rights as teachers, writers, and artists.
The women of 1848 inspire successive generations of women to continue their struggle.
Author(s): Laura S. Schor
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 355
City: Cham
Chronology of Women and Political Activism in Paris: 1848–1852
Acknowledgments
Contents
About the Author
List of Figures
Chapter 1: Introduction: First Feminists
Chapter 2: Different Paths to 1848
Gathering of the Cohort
Shared Concerns in February 1848
Chapter 3: Rebels, Images, Petitions
The February Revolution
Marianne de Lamartine and the Société Maternelle
Vésuviennes
Women Petition the Provisional Government
Letters to the Provisional Government
Chapter 4: Developing the Feminist Agenda
La Voix des femmes
Société de la Voix des femmes
The Feminist Agenda of 1848
Chapter 5: The Right to Work
Women and Paid Labor
National Workshops and the Luxembourg Commission
National Workshops for Women
Midwives and Domestic Workers
Fête de la Concorde
Chapter 6: The Club des Femmes
Political Clubs
The Club des Femmes
Satiric Images of the Club des Femmes
Chapter 7: Revolution, Repression, Resistance
La Politique des femmes
Women on the Barricades
Silencing Women
Producer and Consumer Cooperatives
Chapter 8: Women Reclaim Public Roles
The Constitution of the Second Republic
Banquets
L’Opinion des femmes
Jeanne Deroin: Candidate for the National Assembly
The Fraternal Association of Male and Female Teachers and Professors
Union of Workers’ Associations
The Trial and Imprisonment of Jeanne Deroin and Pauline Roland
Chapter 9: After the Coup d’Etat
Coup d’état
Chapter 10: Conclusion: Legacy of the First Feminists
Works Cited
Archival Sources
Periodical Sources
For Women Readers
For Workers
Satiric Press
General
Books and Articles
Index
