Worse than in other countries? Serious question. Women seemed implicated in the revolution a lot for example (not always in a good way). Maybe it freed the mind of people.
“Feminism emerged in Paris as part of a broad demand for social and political reform. These women demanded equality for women and then moved on to a demand for the end of male domination. Their chief vehicle for agitation were pamphlets and women’s clubs. The Jacobin element in power abolished all the women’s clubs in October 1793 and arrested their leaders. The movement was crushed. Devance explains the decision in terms of the emphasis on masculinity in wartime, Marie Antoinette’s bad reputation for feminine interference in state affairs, and traditional male supremacy. A decade later the Napoleonic Code confirmed and perpetuated women’s second-class status.”
“With regard to family, the code established the supremacy of the husband over his wife and children, the status quo in Europe at the time. Women had even fewer rights than children. Divorce by mutual consent was abolished in 1804.”
The Directory was dysfunctional but not a dictatorship. I mean, what kind of dictatorship cuts the executive power five ways?
Napoleon’s reign is a mixed bag. He did cement some of the gains of the Revolution but it still wasn’t a good time to be a woman or a former slave.
Worse than in other countries? Serious question. Women seemed implicated in the revolution a lot for example (not always in a good way). Maybe it freed the mind of people.
From the Wikipedia page “Women in the French Revolution”:
“Feminism emerged in Paris as part of a broad demand for social and political reform. These women demanded equality for women and then moved on to a demand for the end of male domination. Their chief vehicle for agitation were pamphlets and women’s clubs. The Jacobin element in power abolished all the women’s clubs in October 1793 and arrested their leaders. The movement was crushed. Devance explains the decision in terms of the emphasis on masculinity in wartime, Marie Antoinette’s bad reputation for feminine interference in state affairs, and traditional male supremacy. A decade later the Napoleonic Code confirmed and perpetuated women’s second-class status.”
And to expand on that last sentence on the Napoleonic Code:
“With regard to family, the code established the supremacy of the husband over his wife and children, the status quo in Europe at the time. Women had even fewer rights than children. Divorce by mutual consent was abolished in 1804.”
Thanks for the info!
Guess the pendulum swung back for some time there!