Discuss the participation of women in political clubs, their activities and demands.

Discuss the participation of women in political clubs, their activities and demands.

Ans.

(i) Women played an important role in various activities. In order to discuss and voice their interests women started their own political clubs and newspapers. About sixty women’s clubs came up in different French cities.

(ii) The society of Revolutionary and Republican Women was the most famous of them, their main demands were that (a) Women should be given the same political rights as men. (b) The right to vote, to be elected to the Assembly and to hold political office.

(iii) In the early years, the revolutionary government did introduce laws that helped improve the lives of women. Together with the creation of state schools, schooling was made compulsory for all girls. Their fathers could no longer force them into marriage against their will. Marriage was made into a contract entered into freely and registered under civil law. Divorce was made legal, and could be applied for by both women and men. Women could now train for jobs, could become artists or run small businesses.

(iv) Women’s struggle for equal political right, however, continued. During the Reign of Terror, the new government issued laws ordering closure of women’s clubs, and banning their political activities. Women’s movements for voting rights and equal wages continued through the next two hundred years in many countries of the world. It was finally in 1946 that women in France won the right to vote.