Women's march to Versailles

Women's march to Versailles

Above is the image of an event of the “October Days” also known as a the Women's march to Versailles. I chose this event because this week's topic is about the e

Enlightenment and French Revolution. This is a capped six months of women’s political involvement: their active presence in Paris neighborhoods, in electoral assemblies for the Estates General and in the conquest of the Bastille (BV). It’s the first revolutionary that we see women demanding citizenship rights for women. In this march, thousands are empowering themselves as citizens as they confront the national legislative and the king with demands: bread, royal ratification of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the government from Versailles to Paris (BV). What’s significant about this event is that these women acted like citizens. According to the authors Levy and Applewhite, “Through these practices, they forged a link between their identities and behaviors as citizens, on the one hand, and new concepts of popular sovereignty, citizenship, and political legitimacy, on the other- the touchstones of modern democratic practice (BV). Women who did not march to Versailles, did other participation such as signing or marking petitions, attending revolutionary meetings, and participating in neighborhood self-government (BV).  They also contribute by donating their jewels to the treasury, knitted stocking, made bandages for the armies, or joined revolutionary festivals (BV). The march to Versailles is just one event that women took charge of the Revolution. But as we know, women did not become citizens right away in fact it took many years later.


Sources:
Bridenthal, Stuard, and Merry Wiesner. Becoming Visible: Women in European History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998. Print.
images from Google