De la guerrière à la citoyenne. Porter les armes pendant l’Ancien Régime et la Révolution française
Dominique Godineau
Clio, 20|(2004)
Although war is considered a masculine activity, some French women fought in the civil wars of the 16th and 17th centuries or served in the royal armies, which many women accompanied as civilians. During the French Revolution, service within the National guard and, less directly, in the army was linked to citizenship. As a result, the militant revolutionary women who demanded the right to bear arms in the National guard were claiming one of the political rights of citizenship, and thus experienced a firm rejection of their demand. In their desire to defend the Republic and to share with men the glory of fighting for it, citoyennes enrolled individually in the army and continued to serve even after the decree of 30 April 1793 banned them from serving. Women’s requests to be armed, the responses these generated, as well as the stories, the remarks of women soldiers, and the reactions they inspired offer the means to analyze the relationship between masculinity, arms, and citizenship, as well as to study the mechanisms that excluded women from the army.