Women's Political Agency in Revolutionary Paris, 1789-1793

9 weekly sessions online. on Wednesdays at 2-3pm, starting from Wednesday 29 April

Overview

This course comprises a weekly 1 hour live online meeting (via Teams) and online learning materials for you to engage with before and after each live session. 

What does women’s political agency mean? What did it look like within the context of the French Revolution? Was the female experience universal? These are some of the questions that will be considered on this course. The aim of this course is to introduce some of the ways that women participated in revolutionary society and the political implications this had for both women and the revolutionary process. Participants will analyse a range of sources including women’s testimonies from the Châtelet inquiries, memoirs and letters from Madame Roland and Rosalie Jullien, and the plays and political pamphlets of Olympe de Gouges. They will consider the difference between pro-revolutionary women and counter-revolutionary women. Participants will be given the opportunity to debate on the most significant method of female participation in the French Revolution and the extent to which women’s lives changed during the revolutionary period. By the end of this course, participants will understand the motivations behind women’s participation in the French Revolution and the complex and varied nature of women’s political agency more broadly. 
          
This course is open to all but may be of interest to those who wish to learn more about the French Revolution or the experiences of women in revolutionary Paris. It will also be of interest to those who have an interest in gender and cultural history. No prior knowledge is required. 

Syllabus

1. Introduction to women’s political agency in revolutionary Paris. Discuss the status of women in the latter half of the eighteenth century and outline the remainder of course.
2. Food Riots (1725 and 1775 as comparisons). Primary focus – the October Days of 1789 and the February Riots of 1793.
3. Writing (part one) – Journalism. The journalism of Louise de Kéralio and Sophie de Condorcet. The family journalism of Rosalie Jullien.
4. Writing (part two): Olympe de Gouges. Explore ‘Zamor and Mirza’, ‘The Declaration of the Rights of Women’ and ‘the Portrait of Women’, ‘The Defence of Louis XVI’, and ‘The Three Urns’.
5. Writing (part three) The Letters and Memoirs of Madame Roland.
6. Emphasis on Etta Palm d’Aelders and Théroigne de Méricourt. Discussion of the Cercle Social, the Cordeliers and the Fraternal Society of Both Sexes.
7. The Society of Revolutionary Republican Women.
8. Counter-revolutionary women. Emphasis on Olwen Hufton’s chapter and the Memoirs of the Marquise de La Rochejaquelein.
9. Conclusion

Course lecturer

Dr Sam Dobbie is a PhD History graduate from the University of Glasgow, where she also obtained her MA History and MLitt Modern History degrees. She specialises in the French Revolution, with particular emphasis on the role of women in revolutionary society. Her PhD thesis is entitled ‘Women’s Political Agency in Revolutionary Paris, 1789-1793’. Other research interests include France in the long nineteenth-century and revolution as a process. She has most recently been a tutor at the University of Glasgow and Glasgow Caledonian University on a range of undergraduate and honours courses including France, 1789-1914: Revolution, Nation and Empire, Becoming an Historian, and the Rise of Western Societies, 1789-1914. She also offers courses to adult learners on the Lifelong Learning Dundee programme. Some of her publications include ‘The Complex Nature of Memory in Personal Testimonies from the French Revolution: The Example of Fournier l’Américain’, Esharp 31 (2024), and ‘High Profile Marriages in Revolutionary Paris: The Condorcets’, Epoch 5 (2021).

Course fee

• Standard fee: £140
• Concession fee: £70.