The woman movement in France dates from the upheaval of 1789. Though the demands for the rights of man threw all other claims into the shade, a few women did not fail to perceive that they also had interests at stake. Marie Olympe de Gouges, for example, in her "Declaration of the Rights of Woman," vindicated for her sex all the liberties proclaimed in the famous "Declaration of the Rights of Man." During the empire and the restoration the reform slept; under the July monarchy there was an occasional murmur, which burst forth into a vigorous protest when the revolution of 1848 awakened the aspirations of 1789, and George Sand consecrated her talent to the cause of progress. During the second empire, in spite of the oppressive nature of the government, the movement took on a more definite form; its advocates became more numerous; and men and women who held high places in literature, politics and journalism, spoke out plainly in favor of ameliorating the condition of French women. Then came the third republic, with more freedom than France had enjoyed since the beginning of the century. The woman movement felt the change, and, during the past ten years, its friends have been more active than ever before.
The most tangible event in the history of the question in France is the International Woman's Rights Congress, the first international gathering of the kind, which assembled in Paris in the months of July and August during the exposition season of 1878. The committee which called the congress contained representatives from six different countries, viz.: France, Switzerland, Italy, Holland, Russia and America. Among the eighteen members from France were two senators, five deputies and three Paris municipal councilors. Italy was represented by a deputy and the Countess of Travers, an indefatigable friend of the undertaking, who died just before the opening of the congress. The American members of the committee were Julia Ward Howe, Mary A. Livermore and Theodore Stanton. Among the members[567] of the congress, besides those just mentioned, were deputies, senators, publicists, journalists, and men and women of letters from all parts of Europe. Sixteen different organizations in Europe and America sent delegates. The National Woman Suffrage Association was represented by Jane Graham Jones and Theodore Stanton, and the American Woman Suffrage Association by Julia Ward Howe.
The work of the congress was divided into five sections, as follows: the historical, the educational, the economic, the moral, and the legislative. The congress was opened on July 25, by Léon Richer, its promoter and originator, and one of the most indefatigable friends of women's rights in France. He invited Maria Deraismes, an able speaker well known among Paris reformers, to act as temporary chairman. The next thing in order was the election of two permanent presidents, a man and a woman. The late M. Antide Martin, then an influential member of the Paris municipal council, and Julia Ward Howe were chosen. Mrs. Howe, on taking the chair, made a short speech which was very well received; Anna Maria Mozzoni, of Milan, a most eloquent orator, followed; and then Genevieve Graham Jones advanced to the platform, and in the name of her mother, Jane Graham Jones, delegate of the National Woman Suffrage Association, she conveyed to the congress messages of good-will from the United States. This address, delivered with much feeling, and appealing to French patriotism, was enthusiastically received. When Miss Jones had taken her seat, M. Martin arose, thanked the foreign ladies for their admirable words, and concluded in these terms: "In the name of my compatriots, I particularly return gratitude to Miss Graham Jones for the eloquent and cordial manner in which she has just referred to France, and in turn, I salute republican America, which so often offers Europe examples of good sense, wisdom and liberty."
At the second session was read a long and eloquent letter from Salvatore Morelli,[568] the Italian deputy. Theodore Stanton read a paper entitled, "The Woman Movement in the United States." The third session was devoted to the educational phase of the woman question. Tony Révillon, who has since become one of the radical deputies of Paris, spoke, and Miss Hotchkiss presented an able report on "The Education of Women in America." After Miss Hotchkiss had finished, Auguste Desmoulins, now a member of the Paris municipal council, offered, as president of the section, a resolution advocating the principal reforms—the same studies for boys and girls, and coëducation—demanded by Miss Hotchkiss. The resolution was carried without debate. Aurelia Cimino Folliero de Luna, of Florence, followed in a few remarks on the "Mission of Woman." Eugénie Pierre, of Paris, spoke on the "Vices of Education in Different Classes of Society," and in closing complimented America in the highest terms for its progressive position on the woman question. In fact, the example of the United States was frequently cited throughout the proceedings of this congress, and the reformers of America may find some joy in feeling that their labors are producing fruit even in the old world.
At the last session of the congress, August 9, 1878, a permanent international committee was announced. France, England, Italy, Alsace-Lorraine, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Sweden, Poland, Russia, Roumania and the United States are all represented on this committee.[569] The chief duties of this committee were to be the advancement of the reforms demanded by the congress and to issue the call for the next international gathering. The congress ended with a grand banquet on the evening of the last day's session, in which about two hundred guests participated.
The present situation in France is full of interest and encouragement. There are societies, journals, and different groups of reformers all striving independently but earnestly to better the situation of French women politically, civilly, morally and intellectually. At the head of the agitation in favor of women's political rights stand Hubertine Auclert and her vigorous monthly, La Citoyenne[570]; the reformers of the code are lead by Léon Richer and his outspoken monthly, Le Droit des Femmes[571]; the movement in favor of divorce, which was crowned with success in the summer of 1884, is headed by Alfred Naquet in the senate, and finds one of its earliest and ablest supporters in Olympe Audouard; the emancipation of women from priestly domination—and herein lies the greatest and most dangerous obstacle that the reformers encounter—counts among its many advocates Maria Deraismes; woman's moral improvement, to be mainly accomplished by the abolition of legalized prostitution, is demanded by Dr. and Mrs. Chapman and Emilie de Morsier; while the great uprising in favor of woman's education has such a host of friends and has already produced such grand results, that the brief limits of this sketch will permit neither an enumeration of the one nor the other.
The transition from France to Italy is easy and natural, for it is on the Cisalpine peninsula that Gallic ideas have always taken deeper root than elsewhere on the Continent, and, as might be expected, the Italian woman movement resembles in many respects that of which we have just spoken.
With the formation of the kingdom of Italy in 1870 began a well-defined agitation in favor of Italian women. The educational question was first taken up. Prominent among the women who participated in this movement were Laura Mantegazza, the Marchioness Brigida Tanari, and Alessandrina Ravizza. Aurelia Cimino Folliero de Luna, who has devoted her whole life to improving the condition of her countrywomen, writes me from Florence on this subject. "Here it was," she says, "that the example of American and English women, who in this respect were our superiors, was useful to us. While we were still under foreign domination and ignorant of solidarity of sex, they were free and united." The new political life produced a number of able women orators and writers, such as Anna Mozzoni, Malvina Frank, Gualberta Beccari, and many others. The last named founded at Venice La Donna, and in 1872 Aurelia Cimino Folliero de Luna established in Florence La Cornelia, which has since ceased to exist, while in 1882 Ernesta Napollon began at Naples the publication of the short-lived L'Umanitario, the youngest of a goodly list of journals which have done much to excite an interest in the woman question. The Italian government has generously seconded the efforts of the reformers. The code has been modified, schools have been established, the universities thrown open and courses in agriculture proposed.