More than Bread and Butter: French Feminists among Working Class Women
Abstract
This paper will specifically explore the 1789 Women’s March on Versailles, an event during the French Revolution where working class women protested against the monarchy for bread in joint effort with intellectual women, such as De Gouges, who demanded a voice in the political arena. The paper finds that whilst the primary demand of working-class women appeared to be bread and thereby purely materialistic, they too wanted political rights, marching as part of a broader political movement to make the desires of women heard. This paper highlights the interconnectedness between economic and political aspirations within the revolutionary context, particularly the concern of high living costs and women’s political representation, and places emphasis on the working-class women's contributions to the success of the French Revolution. By analyzing the women's statements during protests and petitions, the paper presents evidence that challenges the perception that the demands of working-class women were solely driven by immediate material needs.
References
- Olympe de Gouges. “Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen.” In The French Revolution and Human Rights: A Brief Documentary History, edited by Lynn Hunt, 85. Bedford/St. Martin's, 1996.
- Censer, Jack R. "Liberty, Equality, and the Power of Memory: French Monarchism and the French Revolution." French Historical Studies 18, no. 1 (1994): 145.
- Darlene Gay Levy and Harriet Branson Applewhite. In The Women's Revolution in France, 1789-1795, edited by Darline Gay Levy, Harriet Branson Applewhite, and Mary Durham Johnson, 58. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987.
- La Luzerne, Anne-César de. In The Encyclopedia Britannica. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 2021.
- Léon, Pauline. “Les femmes de Paris à l'Assemblée Nationale." October 30, 1789. Translated by Levy, Darline Gay, and Harriet B Applewhite. "Revolutionary Women in Postrevolutionary France." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 1, no. 4 (1976): 808-824.
- Léon, Pauline. “Les femmes de Paris à l'Assemblée Nationale," 58-60.
- Gleadle, Kathryn. "Women’s Rights and the French Revolution: A Biography of Pauline Léon." Women's History Review 5, no. 1 (1996): 110.
- Ferrières, Charles-Élie. "Letter to the Count of La Luzerne." October 6, 1789. Translated by Richard Bienvenu. In The French Revolution and Human Rights: A Brief Documentary History, edited by Lynn Hunt, 55. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1996.
- Hufton, Olwen. Women and the Limits of Citizenship in the French Revolution. University of Toronto Press, 1992.
- "Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira, Les aristocrates à la lanterne!" chant, March on Versailles, 5-6 October 1789.
- Schama, Simon. Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution. New York: Penguin Books, 2004.
- French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, Article 6, 26 August 1789.