Women of the French Revolution
Come learn about the first feminist, the first woman politician, and a woman assassin— the heroines of the macho French Revolution!
Cost: $12. Please note that this fee helps keep our small business going during the crisis so we can get up and running right away when it is safe to bring people together again in person.
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The French Revolution brought about great advances in the rights of *men*, but the category of “men” emphatically did not include women. Marie Antoinette was not the only woman the Revolutionaries executed for taking over what they saw as the roles proper to men. In this lecture, you will learn about three heroic women who fought (in different ways) for the rights of women: Olympe de Gouges, arguably the first feminist writer, who responded to the Declaration of the Rights of Man with a Declaration of the Rights of Woman; Madame Roland, the first woman politican—and the first moderate arrested in the Terror; and Charlotte Corday, who took the law into her own hands and tried to put a stop to the Terror by assassinating its leading propagandist, Jean-Paul Marat (famously, in his bath). Two years before her execution, de Gouges prophetically wrote, “A woman has the right to mount the scaffold. She must equally possess the right to mount the speaker’s platform.” Learn about the heroism of these three amazing women who mounted both and started (intentionally or unintentionally) the feminist movement.
Speaker Bios
A Parisian native, Edith de Belleville was an attorney at law for many, many years, but her passion for Paris and its history led her back to university (at the age of 50) to get her official tour guide license. Deeply inspired by Parisian women of the past, Edith decided to write a book, in French, entitled The Beautiful Rebels of Paris (Belles et Rebelles, Editions Erik Bonnier). Edith also teaches Jewish heritage in Paris at University Gustave Eiffel (Marne la Vallée), and has just finished a book in English about the fabulous life of a mature Parisian woman in the City of Light.
Andrew Lear is a renowned expert on same-sex relations in Greek and Roman antiquity. During his academic career, he taught at Harvard, Pomona College, and NYU. In recent years, he has founded Oscar Wilde Tours, the LGBTQ history and culture tour company and Shady Ladies Tours, a women's history and culture tour company. He is also working with actor/author Stephen Fry on a podcast about the "Scandals and Secrets of London's National Portrait Gallery."