Women, Recognise Your Rights; Feminism As A Conflicting Ideology To Romanticism, Liberalism In The French Revolution And Conservatism In The 1848 Revolutions
European history from the French Revolution to the end of the Second World War may be viewed as a series of struggles between competing ideologies. Discuss.
“Woman is born free and lives equal to man in her rights. Social distinctions can be based only on the common utility.” (De Gouge,1781). Feminism is commonly defined as the representation of equality committed by various institutions, on behalf of women’s rights and interests (Brunell and Burkett,2019) and feminism or more commonly known as gender equality as the term ‘feminist’ was not coined until 1837 by French philosopher, Charles Fourier, was said to have existed during the era of the mid 18th century will remain as a comparison throughout the periods covered in this essay; the Romantic Age, the French Revolution and the Congress of Vienna and the Revolutions of 1848, specifically in France.
Feminism and Romanticism
During the age of Romanticism which was seen as the artistic and literary movement which favoured moving back to the abstract essentials of nature and emotion (Mason,2019). It took on different names in some parts of Europe; the Strum und Drang ( the Storm and Stress) in Germany and Romantiki in Russia but the core tenets of romanticism, despite the names it took on are the same as romantic works tended to stray from the reason and purposefulness of life which was proposed during the Enlightenment. In the era of romantic philosopher’s like Edmund Burke, most male writers tended to adhere to Burke’s sense of ‘speaking the truth’ and the beauty of the “philosophic mind” which allowed the freedom of expression of passion, emotion and erotic desire. ‘Faust’ by Goethe is a perfect example of what it meant to express erotic desire as his famous work, Faust talks about the devil attempting to seduce a teenage girl.
During this period, it brought about an upsurge of female writers but, the works of most female romantics were subscribing to the “ethics of care” unlike men who wrote on “the autonomous self” which conflicts with each other because while men were allowed to write about passion, emotion and even erotic desire while women were meant to keep to the spheres of writing on submission and the importance of family and pleasing the community values rather than prioritizing the rights of the individual.
Romanticism in the art world tended to focus on nature, also upheld ideas about nationalism and the fascination with gothic and dark ideas. The paintings will provide a very in-depth comparison of romanticism and the portrayal of women; When we look at the Nightmare by Anglo-Swiss painter, Henry Fuseli which was painted in 1781, on the surface, we see a woman who is wearing a white dress is lying in a somnambulist slumber with her arms, neck and head hanging off the edge of the bed, with white light shining on her while an impish figure sits on top of her chest while a mare with glowing eyes and flared nostrils emerge from the background (Paulson,2018) but we can see that there is a more misogynistic message which is about the concern of “ female erotica” (Vogel,1976) and that the ‘woman’ in the painting is wearing white to symbolize purity and innocence and the mare in the background represents the male libido and the woman lying in the suggestive pose suggests that she is ‘opening up to the temptation’.
In comparison to “ Liberty Leading the People” by French artist, Euguéne Delacroix was painted during the July Revolutions of 1830 who painted the romantic envision of how the revolution was painted to be, an allegorical depiction of liberty as a goddess-like figure with full, round breasts and robust figure who is leading the people to freedom, to seek their rights of liberty (Zelazko,2020). She is painted similarly to women in Greek statues and paintings, as she carries a musket while the yellow dress that she wears with the contrasting red cape which hangs loosely around her shoulders while underneath is those who died for the glory of France (Zelazko,2020).
Fuseli had what was called an ‘unabashed love of women’ while Delacroix tended to incorporate women as mere aesthetics in his paintings unlike Liberty Leading the People yet both of these paintings contradict one another, while women were portrayed in Fuseli’s eyes as innocent beings while Delacroix portrayed women as dominant strong beings but feminism acts as a contradicting ideology here because both of these paintings had one thing in common; the inherent sexism of both of these paintings, Fuseli’s was on the innocent temptress while Delacroix's show the seductive allegory of freedom, coincidently leading the people to freedom.
Feminism and Liberalism during the French Revolution
Before the liberation of women during the French Revolution, women were bound to the position of home-makers because of the work of Jean Jacques Rousseau when he wrote Emile in 1762, in Chapter V in which he wrote that women are “passive and weak” and that they should “put up little resistance” and are “made specially to please men”.
Rousseau’s perspective on women was very well-received amongst politicians in France hence women were not allowed to participate in political events, but the tides began to turn during French Revolution began in 1789 when crowds of women began to assemble at Parisian markets and marched to the Hôtel de Ville, demanding that city officials address their concerns and the tensions between feminist, liberalist and conservative thought only grew when the Declaration of the Rights of Man was written in 1789 which many women saw as hypocritical as one of the clauses in the document was “the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man.
These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.”(Lafayette,1791) which angered women as women were not even considered as citizens in the newly developed and liberal France.
The Declaration of the rights of man also wrote that “All citizens being equal in its eyes are equally admissible to all public dignities, offices, and employments, according to their ability, and with no other distinction than that of their virtues and talents.” (Lafayette,1791). Men were ‘blind’ during a time of the supposed time of the Revolution which supported the liberty of all, yet the rights of women were tossed aside and men were ‘like despotic rulers’ who ‘want to command women’. The hypocrisy of the supposed ‘enlightenment’ era was written in the Declaration of the Rights of Women; “Man alone has raised his exceptional circumstances to a principle. Bizarre, blind, bloated with science and degenerated in a century of enlightenment and wisdom into the crassest ignorance” (De Gouge,1792).
The tensions only grew when more women became more vocal and truly ‘woke up’. Besides de Gouges, other feminists were either executed or received public humiliation. One example was Belgian activist, Théroigne de Méricourt who was arrested, publicly flogged and then spent the rest of her life sentence to an insane asylum.
French chocolate maker,Pauline Léon and French actress, Claire Lacombe were arrested, later released, and continued to receive ridicule and abuse for their activism. British writer, Mary Wollstonecraft who wrote the Vindication of the Rights of Women , openly called women of her time “ spaniels” or “toys” because of how women are so ill-educated yet she does not blame women but she blames women for focusing entirely on their physical appearance in order to truly progress and she also talked about providing free education for women everywhere.Charlotte Corday assassinated Jean Paul Marat and although she was viewed as a villainous woman who assassinated ‘a hero’ , there were people who viewed her as a martyr.
During the Revolution, male activists like Jean-Paul Marat and Robespierre were revered, unlike women who were viewed as irrational lunatics.
While Robespierre preached about liberalism and equality who said that the ‘essence of the republic or of democracy is equality, it follows that the love of country necessarily includes the love of equality.’ (Robespierre,1791) yet he executed women who dared to challenge him and viewed women as counter-revolutionaries and unnatural women which inherently challenges his supposed liberal and united love for equality and his equality is only for those who agreed with him, which many women did not.
The ideas of feminism and liberalism were somewhat similar and different. While both of these ideas were based on the tripartite being liberté, égalité, and fraternité which is the fundamental rights for all citizens of France as spoken by Robespierre but the difference between these ideas is the perversion of the idea of liberty which is rightfully the protection of individual rights and allowing individual rights to be at the forefront of governance (Ball and Girvetz,2018) yet, it was only men who had everything to gain from the French Revolution, despite the efforts of women to fight for the rights for everyone.
Feminism and Conservatism during the 1848 Revolutions
The Congress of Vienna brought about the perseverance of the old monarchic order which ensured a balance of power as well as preserving monarchical power to ensure long-lasting peace which lead to civil unrest throughout Europe, primarily in France with the failed June Revolution of 1830 in which brought about the resurgence of monarchical power by Napoleon III (Mason,2019) which lead to The Revolutions of 1848 or known as the People’s Spring was a time in Europe where monarchies were overthrown, constitutions were proclaimed or independence was declared (Mason,2019). The revolutions started in France with the July Revolutions of 1830 due to the resurgence of the monarchy, defeating the civil liberties which were achieved during the French Revolution (Mason,2019).
The events of the Revolutions of 1848 was caused by a muddle of ideas; it incorporated the ideas of the enlightenment which involved the focus of human rights, individualism and popular sovereignty, romanticism with the idea of individualism and heroism and the ideas from the industrial revolution which brought about ideas from Marx and Engels in the constant class struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat (Mason,2019). Despite these ideas having different tenets, these ideas had one thing in common; these ideas all contrasted with the conservative ideas which were formed by the Congress of Vienna which lead to many civil rights being stripped away, primarily in France. The revolts of 1848 planted the ideas of nationalism into the minds of the French people (Mason,2019). While feminists did not take a very active role as they did in the French Revolutions, their roles of defending their neighbourhoods in 1830, ‘pulling up paving stones, throwing stones and caring for the wounded’ (Barry,1996).
The tenets of conservatism is the emphasis on traditional institutions as well as upholding the belief that society is not a collection of individuals but a living, breathing system that consists of members that are closely connected and interdependent (Dagger and Minogue,2018). While feminism is not a direct contrasting ideology to conservatism during the era of the Congress of Vienna but with ministers like Françoise Guizot who said that he is a ‘decided enemy of universal suffrage.’ which while we can look at it from a perspective of conservatism vs liberalism but when he talks about being an enemy of universal suffrage, it does not only talk about the rights of man but the rights of women as well. The strong faith of conservatism and the pope is one of the ideas of conservatism which is why women were viewed lower than men in society and with conservatives like Guizot and DeMaistre who already had a strong disdain for the revolution also disliked women who were involved as well.
While feminism during these periods of time was fought in different ways, during the romantic age it was through artistic expression, in the French Revolutions, was fought through militancy and solidarity which shaped how we view women in a modern age and they gained power over themselves. Despite the ideologies that conflicted with feminism being different yet, the one common thing was shared which was that all these ideas were sexist and tended to exclude women from the political and intellectual debate. The events that have been talked about have been recognized today by many feminists as the start of first-wave feminism across Europe.
( for References, please ask the authors)
( This essay was an assignment for a Year 1 module; Paths to Modernity taught by Dr Benjamin Robin Barton)
