I am Anne- Marguerite Andalle, a woman who lives in the Saint Denis section of Paris, and like all of the women of France, I have been suffering for way too long. I am a widow of many years now and I am barely able to survive. The prices of bread are barbaric; for me it is the choice of starvation or to be shelterless. I recently led a group of enraged women to protest the price of bread, and we were very successful to provide bread to the people and pay for a reasonable price. We rushed into the bakeries and demanded bread that we were able to afford. Women took the initiative to supply their family and their husband with food. Each and every woman who has learned from Rousseau to have virtue and courage, has the …show more content…
As soon as the king decided to withhold the grain from Paris, I led the women once again to fight. The only problem was, we were not allowed to bear arms because of Lafayette's recent law that forbids anyone other than the members of the National Guard the right to bear arms. In October, we marched to Versailles with illegal weapons and captured the King and his family for his inhumane decision. We would not be capable of doing this without our weapons. Us women have the courage to die for this revolution, but should at least have the right to bear arms to fight for our nation. “Every individual is equal before the law” and should therefore apply to women as well. As Pauline Leon once said in her speech,” The women risked all sorts of measures: shouting, and demonstrating in the spectator galleries of the national legislator and Section assemblies, circulating seditious petitions, making insulting remarks to local and national magistrate's, and protesting in food riots and popular insecurities.” (Women in Revolutionary Paris 1789-95) We are seen to be more willing than men to combine legal tactics in order …show more content…
“Educated women want social, economic, and political demands that are radical” (Women in Revolutionary Paris 1789-95). Simple demands such as being seen as someone who molds our society's future is significant for our women’s dignity. Other demands such as marriage rights and the right to property are being demanded. Furthermore, “the demands of poor women-- workers, market women, and the wives of sans-culottes-- were less radical departures from past behaviors” (Women in Revolutionary Paris 1789-95). The poor women were seen to be more of a threat because they were fighting for rights that determined their fate. Rights such as reasonable bread prices is something we deserve and need desperately. How can we be expected to survive without “le prix juste”?. In the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, It states, “ Every citizen has a right to participate personally, or through his representative, in its formation. It must be the same for all whether it protects or punishes” (p.121). To expand on this, all men and women deserve the same equal rights under the French