ABSTRACT
TWO ANONYMOUS PAMPHLETS APPEARED in 1790 in the newly independent republics of Belgium and Liège, the Réclamations des citoyennes de Bruxelles, tant démocrates qu 'aristocrates (Demands of the Women Citizens of Brussels, Democrats As Well As Aristocrats) and the Réclamations des citoyennes de Liège, tant démocrates qu'aristocrates (Demands of the Women Citizens of Liège, Democrats As Well As Aristocrats). Apart from the titles, the two pamphlets were identical. “We have groaned under the abuse of masculine authority for more than 17 centuries,” the authors of the two pamphlets protested. They exhorted their Belgian and Liégeois readers to look to France, where women had taken up the pen against men, the enemies of their happiness. “Revolutions of every type tell us that our reign is coming,” proclaimed the authors.
