ABSTRACT
The French Revolution is doubtless one of the most interesting social phenomena in Western history, especially with regards to the role of women, not only during the years of social upheaval but also in the aftermath of the violent events. At the height of the French Revolution, roughly in the first few years after its inception in 1789, a large number of French women of all classes breached the social limitations of their gender, disproving forever the perception of the ‘weaker sex’. They were unapologetic about claiming more power, authority, and independence both in the private and the public realms, which, however, triggered a social backlash to their cause. Many women participated actively in the public events and within all political parties, from the pro-monarchists to the Girondins and the Jacobins. Nevertheless, in the years immediately after the declaration of the First Republic (in 1792), their leaders, especially the women, who eventually became the icons of the revolutionary movements, were discredited, vilified, imprisoned, and even guillotined, ostensibly for their political agenda, but possibly for their open and unapologetic activism that shocked the French patriarchy.
