Women

• Women in French society during the revolutionary period were active participants in events that brought about important changes
• Most women of the third estate had to work for a living, in occupations such as seamstresses, laundresses, selling goods at the market, or working as domestic servants
• Working women also had to care for their families, including cooking, fetching water, queuing up for bread, and looking after children
• Women did not have equal access to education or job training, with only daughters of nobles or wealthier individuals being able to study at a convent
• Women started their own political clubs and newspapers to discuss and voice their interests, with about sixty women's clubs forming in different French cities
• The Society of Revolutionary and Republican Women was a prominent women's club that demanded equal political rights for women
• Women were disappointed by the Constitution of 1791, which reduced them to passive citizens and did not grant them the right to vote, be elected to the Assembly, or hold political office
• In the early years of the revolutionary government, laws were introduced to improve the lives of women, including compulsory schooling for all girls, legalizing divorce, and allowing women to train for jobs and run businesses
• During the Reign of Terror, laws were passed to close women's clubs and ban their political activities, leading to the arrest and execution of many prominent women
• Women's movements for voting rights and equal wages continued globally for the next two hundred years, culminating in women in France winning the right to vote in 1946