Femmes, d’une révolution à une autre, 1789-1848, par Marie-Hélène Baylac

Presentation at the conference "Being a Woman in Napoleon's Time" (November 2025), by Marie-Hélène Baylac during the fourth session: "New Figures, New Styles" (Session Chair: Sylvie Aubenas, Director of the Prints and Photography Department, National Library of France). The Fondation Napoléon, and its partners "Le Figaro Histoire," the Catholic Institute of Vendée, the Institut Napoléon, and Éditions Perrin, organized (on Tuesday, November 18 and Wednesday, November 19, 2025) a major conference dedicated to the place and role of women under the First Empire. #WomenNapoleon2025 Despite their participation in the revolutionary days, women were denied any political rights during the French Revolution. They did, however, obtain civil equality: marriage as a contract between equals, the possibility of divorce for incompatibility, and equal inheritance rights for legitimate children. But the Civil Code of 1804 overturned these gains: women became legal minors under the authority of their father or husband, and divorce was outlawed in 1816. The fight for gender equality continued, led by socialist activists who used the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 to demand the moralization of marriage and the reform of the Civil Code, but few called for women's suffrage. Women's place remained in the home. In 1848, George Sand refused to run for office as a feminist, believing the time was not yet right. Women's legal incapacity was abolished in 1938, and they voted for the first time in 1945. A graduate of the École Normale Supérieure and a qualified history teacher, Marie-Hélène Baylac has primarily worked on the French Revolution and the 19th century. She has published several books on the Napoleonic era, including a biography of Hortense de Beauharnais (Perrin, 2016, Special Jury Prize of the Fondation Napoléon). She has focused particularly on women's history, as seen in "La peur du peuple, Histoire de la II° République" (The Fear of the People: A History of the Second Republic) and in her biographies of Louise Michel and George Sand (2026, Perrin). 00:00 - Title 00:02 - Acknowledgments 00:47 - Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen 02:12 - Regression in terms of civil equality between men and women 02:35 - Law of November 2, 1793, which grants illegitimate children the right to inherit 03:58 - 1796, 3rd draft of the Civil Code, disappearance of the principle of equality between spouses 04:41 - 1816-1884, voices are raised in favor of the re-establishment of divorce 05:10 - Quote from Jeanne Victoire Deroin in the newspaper "La Femme libre" (1832) 06:26 - 1832, Draft for the re-establishment of divorce (Odilon Barrot) 06:54 - Revolution of 1848, new hopes 07:03 - Manifesto of the "Society for the Emancipation of Women" (Jenny d'Héricourt) 08:03 - Case law on female adultery 09:11 - The organization of women's subjugation 09:53 - A few rare men advocate for women's emancipation 10:05 - Proudhon: writings on women 11:23 - Michelet: "Love" (1859) and "Woman" (1860) 12:19 - Roots of women's subjugation 13:04 - 1793-5, end of feminist hope to participate in the government of the nation 14:13 - Monopoly of men during the following half-century 14:33 - Opponents of the male order 15:16 - The establishment of universal [male] suffrage (1848) revives women's hope 16:22 - March 20, 1848 "The Voice of Women," newspaper and club 5:17 PM - The society "The Voice of Women" proposes George Sand as its candidate 6:10 PM - George Sand, the embodiment of the free-spirited woman 8:22 PM - George Sand and Socialism 9:35 PM - George Sand's response 10:41 PM - In 1848, the prevailing opinion was one of patience