THE CITIZEN MOTHER. NEW ELEMENTS ON WOMEN'S VOTING RIGHTS DURING THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

Women did not have the right to vote during the French Revolution. According to the familialist conception that ran through the electoral system of the period, they were represented by the head of the family. Revolutionaries imagined politically important roles for women, but often as "republican mothers" defined by their educational and moral responsibilities. Familialist concepts, however, did not completely prevent claims for womens suffrage, especially between 1789 and 1793. These often too place outside of the National Assembly ; there were more, and more varied, demands than has often been understood. Some, including the most famous, called for suffrage in terms of natural rights ; others justified womens electoral citizenship in the name of certain qualities, including maternity, which actually introduced distinctions between women. Neither strategy ultimately succeeded but looking closely at them helps us to reconsider the stakes of feminine and political representations during the era of the French Revolution.