Women and Political Activism in France, 1848-1852

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 inthe 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. 

“Laura Schor offers readers a reinterpretation of the 1848 revolution in France, as seen through the lives of ten intrepid women who were front-line advocates of legal rights, economic justice, and citizenship for French women.  Her portraits are engaging, thoughtful, and beautifully written. Schor provides new insights into the possibilities for women’s activism in a time of revolution on behalf of democratic government.  This book is essential reading for anyone interested in past – and present -- struggles for truly inclusive democracy.” (Karen Offen  Ph.D.Senior Scholar, the Clayman Institute for Gender Research ,Stanford University, USA.)

“Decades before the words "feminism" and "feminist" came into use in France and other western countries there were women boldly asserting that women were fully the equals of men and thus contending that women deserved more education and employment opportunities, and even political rights. Drawing on archivaland published sources, Laura Schor ably presents a group of ten pioneering women who made the case for women's rights during the 1830s and, notably, during the French revolution of 1848, when King Louis-Philippe was ousted and replaced by a democratic republic, albeit one that proved short-lived.” (Linda L. Clark, Millersville University of Pennsylvania.)

“Anglo-American readers, who generally know little about French (or other European) feminists in the 19^th century, will be astonished to learn about these “First Feminists” whose agenda during the Revolutionary years of 1848-1851 drew to them thousands of followers. Their activities–women-run newspapers and clubs, their petitions, and their participation in the fighting on the barricades–were based on a socialist and feminist agenda that would look radical even to 20^th century feminists. Laura Schor’s meticulously researched study focuses on a group of women whose feminism dates back to the 1830s among thesocialist Saint- Simonians and forward to the end of the century. Other historians have written histories that recognize the importance of these feminists, but none with such depth and detail to the development of each of the ideas and political activism made possible by the Revolution. Nor did their activism end with the repression of 1851. Contrary to the conclusions of previous histories of French feminism after 1851, Schor traces their continued influence and that of younger women with whom they had worked closely to the end of the century. This is a history we should all know.” (Claire G. Moses, University of Maryland, USA.)

Laura S. Schor, former Provost of Hunter College and founding Dean of the Macaulay Honors College, is Professor of History at Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center, USA. She also directed the Center for Women’s Studies at the University of Cincinnati. Schor is the author of four books on women’s history in France: Women and the Making of the Working Class: Lyon, 1830-1870; What Were Little Girls and Boys Made Of? Gender Role Socialization in France, 1830-1880; The Odyssey of Flora Tristan; and The Life and Legacy of the Baroness Betty de Rothschild. She has also written two books about women’s history in Jerusalem: The Best School in Jerusalem: Annie Landau’s School for Girls, 1900-1960; and Sophie Halaby in Jerusalem: An Artist’s Life.