Claire Lacombe

Under the [[Reign of Terror]], the ''enragés'' were suppressed, along with most other extremist groups, including the Society of Revolutionary Republican Women. On September 16, 1793, Lacombe, then president of the Society, was publicly denounced by the Jacobins to the [[Committee of General Security]], accusing her of “making [[counter-revolutionary]] statements,” and having lived with and aided a “notorious counter-revolutionary, the ''enragé'' Leclerc”.<ref name="godi">{{cite book|author=Godineau, Dominique|translator=Katherine Streip|title=The Women of Paris and Their French Revolution|publisher=University of California Press|date=1998}}</ref>

Under the [[Reign of Terror]], the ''enragés'' were suppressed, along with most other extremist groups, including the Society of Revolutionary Republican Women. On September 16, 1793, Lacombe, then president of the Society, was publicly denounced by the Jacobins to the [[Committee of General Security]], accusing her of “making [[counter-revolutionary]] statements,” and having lived with and aided a “notorious counter-revolutionary, the ''enragé'' Leclerc”.<ref name="godi">{{cite book|author=Godineau, Dominique|translator=Katherine Streip|title=The Women of Paris and Their French Revolution|publisher=University of California Press|date=1998}}</ref>

Lacombe was only briefly detained and later defended herself vigorously to the working class women in her Society. However, the writing was already on the wall for this group, which was perceived by the Revolutionary government as uncontrollable and no longer politically useful.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> The Society continued to carry petitions to the Convention. They asked for policies that would 'rehabilitate prostitutes through useful work and indoctrination', 'the enforcement of price fixing laws' and 'giving the sans-culottes power of review and punishment of heads of ministries and of government committees."<ref name=":0" /> [[File:Chérieux - Club des femmes patriotes dans une église - 1793.jpg|thumb|''Club des femmes patriotes dans une église'', drawing by Chérieux, 1793, Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale de France ]]This activity would soon be brought to a stop, however. A violent confrontation took place in late October 1793 between Society members and the 'bourgeois' owners of food stalls in [[Les Halles]] (the main food market of Paris, which was located right across from the headquarters of the Society in the [[Saint-Eustache, Paris|Saint-Eustache Church]]). The confrontation resulted in the market women laying charges against the women of the Society, including Claire Lacombe. This gave the Jacobins the excuse they were looking for to get rid not only of Claire Lacombe, but also of all women's political organisations.<ref name=":0" /> It took only one day for the [[Committee of General Security]] to prepare its report and recommendations on these charges. The report focused on two general questions: 'should women exercise political rights and meddle in (''s'immiser'') the affairs of government? And should women take part in political societies?'.<ref name=":0" /> The answer to both of these questions was 'no' on several grounds: making the necessary investment in political organisation would cause women to sacrifice of the more appropriate cares to which Nature assigns them.'<ref name=":0" /> Also, women were not thought to have the 'self discipline, dispassion, limitless self-sacrifice' required to exercise political rights.<ref name=":0" /> The [[National Convention]] adopted these recommendations with near unanimity on 30 October 1793.<ref name="Doyle420" />

Lacombe was only briefly detained and later defended herself vigorously to the working class women in her Society. However, the writing was already on the wall for this group, which was perceived by the Revolutionary government as uncontrollable and no longer politically useful.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> The Society continued to carry petitions to the Convention. They asked for policies that would 'rehabilitate prostitutes through useful work and indoctrination', 'the enforcement of price fixing laws' and 'giving the sans-culottes power of review and punishment of heads of ministries and of government committees."<ref name=":0" /> [[File:Chérieux - Club des femmes patriotes dans une église - 1793.jpg|thumb|''Club des femmes patriotes dans une église'' (Club of Patriotic Women in a church) drawing by Chérieux, 1793, Paris, [[Bibliothèque nationale de France|Bibliotheque Nationale de France]] ]]This activity would soon be brought to a complete stop, however. In late October 1793, a violent confrontation took place between Society members and the 'bourgeois' owners of food stalls in [[Les Halles]] (the main food market of Paris, which was located right across from the headquarters of the Society in the [[Saint-Eustache, Paris|Saint-Eustache Church]]). The confrontation resulted in the market women laying charges against the women of the Society, including Claire Lacombe. This gave the Jacobins the excuse they were looking for to get rid not only of Claire Lacombe, but also of all women's political organisations.<ref name=":0" /> It took only one day for the [[Committee of General Security]] to prepare its report and recommendations on these charges. The report focused on two general questions: 'should women exercise political rights and meddle in (''s'immiser'') the affairs of government? And should women take part in political societies?'.<ref name=":0" /> The answer to both of these questions was 'no' on several grounds: making the necessary investment in political organisation would cause women to sacrifice of the more appropriate cares to which Nature assigns them.'<ref name=":0" /> Also, women were not thought to have the 'self discipline, dispassion, limitless self-sacrifice' required to exercise political rights.<ref name=":0" /> The [[National Convention]] adopted these recommendations with near unanimity on 30 October 1793.<ref name="Doyle420" />

According to some modern analyses of this decision, the Society’s suppression was less a reaction to its violent actions in the service of the Revolution, and more due to men’s fear of losing their control over the productive — and reproductive — labors of the female sex.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Hufton |first=Olwen |date=1989 |title=Women in Revolution |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42844107 |journal=French Politics and Society |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=65–81 |issn=0882-1267}}</ref>. For example, Pierre [[Pierre Gaspard Chaumette|Chaumette]] (an ''enragé'' who led the government of Paris from 1789 until 1795) asserted men's rights to have women care for the family, and claimed that domestic duties were the only civic duties women had. He further cautioned the women by reminding them of the recently executed [[Madame Roland]] and [[Olympe de Gouges]], describing such politically active women as "haughty", "denatured" and "shameless".<ref>{{Citation |title=Chaumette, Speech at City Hall Denouncing Women’s Political Activism (17 November 1793) |date=1793-11-17 |url=https://revolution.chnm.org/d/489 |access-date=2025-07-04}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Patou-Mathis |first=Marylène |author-link=Marylène Patou-Mathis |title=De onzichtbaarheid van de vrouw van de prehistorie tot nu |date=2022 |publisher=Athenaeum-Polak & Van Gennep |isbn= |location=Amsterdam |page=164}}</ref>

According to some modern analyses of this decision, the Society’s suppression was less a reaction to its violent actions in the service of the Revolution, and more due to men’s fear of losing their control over the productive — and reproductive — labors of the female sex.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Hufton |first=Olwen |date=1989 |title=Women in Revolution |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42844107 |journal=French Politics and Society |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=65–81 |issn=0882-1267}}</ref>. For example, Pierre [[Pierre Gaspard Chaumette|Chaumette]] (an ''enragé'' who led the government of Paris from 1789 until 1795) asserted men's rights to have women care for the family, and claimed that domestic duties were the only civic duties women had. He further cautioned the women by reminding them of the recently executed [[Madame Roland]] and [[Olympe de Gouges]], describing such politically active women as "haughty", "denatured" and "shameless".<ref>{{Citation |title=Chaumette, Speech at City Hall Denouncing Women’s Political Activism (17 November 1793) |date=1793-11-17 |url=https://revolution.chnm.org/d/489 |access-date=2025-07-04}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Patou-Mathis |first=Marylène |author-link=Marylène Patou-Mathis |title=De onzichtbaarheid van de vrouw van de prehistorie tot nu |date=2022 |publisher=Athenaeum-Polak & Van Gennep |isbn= |location=Amsterdam |page=164}}</ref>