Introduction
Part I: Before
1. The Actors and the Action
2. Politics and Ideas: Setting the Stage
Part II: During
3. Elisabeth Dmitrieff and the Union des femmes: Revolutionizing
Women's Labor
4. André Léo and the Subversion of Gender: The Battle Over Women's
Place
5. Paule Mink and the clubistes: Anti-Clericalism and Popular
Revolution
Part III: After
6. Dmitrieff and Léo in the Aftermath: Radicalizing History
7. Mink in the Aftermath: Radicalizing the Future
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Revolutionary women leaders in the Paris Commune.
Carolyn J. Eichner is a historian and Associate Professor of Women's Studies at the University of South Florida.
Conceived as a contribution to the history of French feminism,
Carolyn Eichner's study implicitly links the feminists of the 1848
Revolution with those of the late nineteenth century by
demonstrating the Paris Commune's central importance as a catalyst
for one important strand of feminist activism.... Eichner argues
convincingly that these women have been little recognized by
historians of the Commune, in part because of their predominant
focus on the overpowering figure of Louise Michel and on the
'incendiaries' who came to personify the insurrection itself.... In
her view, they must be recognized first and foremost as feminists,
revealing elements of continuity within feminism and a legacy for
future struggles over women's suffrage at the century's end....
[Her three principal protagonists] were caught up in internal
socialist debatesover goals and strategies, as they attempted to
define their own forms of 'feminist socialism' that could generate
a 'gendered critique of class analysis.'... In the civil war that
was the Commune all three women chose to subordinate gender
questions to the overriding issue of class struggle... [The]
historiography of feminism and socialism has tended tomarginalize
the Communardes on the grounds that these militants demanded social
and economic equality over and above individual women's rights....
Eichner makes a strong case that the legacy of these women was to
keep this strand of feminism and its agenda alive. —European
History Quarterly 38:1 Jan. 2008
*European History Quarterly*
For 72 days following the disastrous 1871 Franco-Prussian War,
working-class and socialist Parisians challenged the French
government. At the end of May 1871, the French Army stormed the
city, attacked the insurgents' barricades, and left over 25,000
rebels dead. Most textbooks ignore the role women played in this
revolt. Eichner (women's studies, Univ. of South Florida) corrects
this oversight. She uses three revolutionaries, Elisabeth
Dmitrieff, Andre Leo, and Paule Mink to represent the greater
number of nameless female communards who challenged the strict
gender and class boundaries that relegated French women to a status
equal to that of minor children. Chapters explore the short-lived
Commune from a refreshingly new feminist perspective. Each of the
three women brought their different strengths to this revolt,
representing the differing constituencies of women present on the
barricades. Dmitrieff excelled at labor organizing, Leo used her
writing skills to challenge the accepted roles allocated by French
society to all women, and Mink specialized in grassroots activism.
Despite the failure of the Commune, all of Eichner's protagonists
continued their public activism, refusing to allow their dreams for
an egalitarian society to die. Summing Up: Recommended. Most
academic levels/libraries.
*Anne Arundel Community College , 2005oct CHOICE*
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