The fight for equality: four women in the Paris Commune
This dissertation examines the involvement of four women in the 1871 Paris Commune. The case studies focus on Elisabeth Dmitrieff, Paule Mink, André Léo and Louise Michel whose links with socialism and the emerging feminist movement are investigated using a number of historical sources, including biographies. The Paris Commune of 1871 has been widely studied and much is known about the male leadership during the 72 days uprising. However, with the exception of Louise Michel who wrote about her own participation, little is known about the roles of thousands of women who fought during the Commune. Yet, the participation of women in the Commune is documented and the parliamentary inquiry into the insurrection of March 18, confirms this officially: 1,051 women were called before the Councils of War, and this is only the number of those who were not killed on the barricades and survived the slaughter of the “semaine sanglante”. This dissertation aims at contributing to the existing body of research, redressing the balance and uncovering the originality of these four women’s contribution and long lasting impact on the social fabric of the French capital. In addition to providing a general context to women’s participation in the Commune, this investigation identifies four significant figures and analyses the nature of the contribution of these four women to the socio-political experiment that was the Paris Commune.
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