xample, one of the laws borrowed from the Roman system and incorporated into first French constitution was known as infirmus imbecillus sexus, women being considered as legal nonpersons (Moses 2). Supporting this structure was the backbone of the Catholic Church. Though the Catholic Church espoused the veneration of the Virgin Mary, her exultation by men was in its essence a form of chivalric idealization of women. Women were denied roles of leadership in the church and, if called, could only serve a spiritual calling by becoming a submissive nun.Though French politics were split Left and Right, they could agree upon one thing: the subjugation of women. Politicians on the Left were inspired by Rousseau who said, "The genuine mother of a family is no woman of the world; she is almost as much of a recluse as the nun in her convent," (Moses 12). Rousseau exerted profound influence on political thought during the Revolution. Though his philosophy proposed freedom guaranteed by the state, he was a misogynist who felt that a woman's "natural" state was in the family and the family alone (Academic American Encyclopedia 144). Louis de Bonald, a member of the Royalist Right echoed the importance of the subjugated woman as a vital factor of the health of the State: "The strength of the aristocratic state is dependent on the authority of the husband, the subordination of the wife, and the dependency of the children," (Moses 6). Both sides agreed that the role of woman was to reside within the family setting. Feminists were faced with a surprisingly united front when it came to battling the injustice of the patriarchal system.Women and The French Revolution of 1789Feminist activism flourished in the time of the Revolution. Women of the 1789 revolution demonstrated for price ceilings on bread and flour, and demanded political rights for the first time (Duchen 1). In September 1791, Olympe de Gouges presented her Dclaration des droits de la...
