Women's Union for the Defence of Paris and for Aid to the Wounded: Women's roles during the Paris Commune

Postgraduate Thesis uoadl:2216208 786 Read counter

Unit:
Κατεύθυνση Ευρωπαϊκή ιστορία
Library of the School of Philosophy
Deposit date:
2017-11-21
Year:
2017
Author:
Doulkeris Alexandros
Supervisors info:
Κώστας Ράπτης, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ
Κώστας Γαγανάκης, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ
Μαρία Παπαθανασίου, Επίκουρη Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ
Original Title:
Η “Union des Femmes pour la défense de Paris et les soins aux blessés“: Ρόλοι των γυναικών στην Κομμούνα του Παρισιού
Languages:
Greek
Translated title:
Women's Union for the Defence of Paris and for Aid to the Wounded: Women's roles during the Paris Commune
Summary:
The study of “Union des femmes pour la défense de Paris et les soins aux blessés” case allows an approach to the history of the French labor movement in the 19th century as well as to the particular role played by women in it.
Union’s action highlights the fact that no political organization has appeared without an evolutionary and often contradictory process first. Reviewing the whole course of France's labor and revolutionary movement, it seems that Union’s action is the movement’s apogee for women. It is obvious that they have benefited not only of many of the innovational ideas of their time but also of the very experience the labor - revolutionary movement has acquired.
Even if the women of the Commune, the women of Union, have had to deal not only with their class enemy, not only with the Versailles troops but also with their own husband or colleague in the trade union that saw them with skepticism, they were recognized as revolutionaries with the help of their own actions. They fought for equitable recognition and won historical victories. These were achievements which for the first time in history paved the way for the overall emancipation of the working woman.
The basis for the emancipation of a woman is set when she participates in production. Therefore, she can produce products of equal value to those of the man as a result of the division of labor and the level of productivity.
For the first time, the women’s question was affronted as a class - based phenomenon. To the extent that a woman participates in the movement, to the extent that she succeeds in unifying her particular demands with those of men, the labor movement achieves significant conquests. It can also overcome and surmount centuries of old traditions, reinforcing the struggle in favor of its equivalence.
By adopting utopian - petty bourgeois visions of reality, the Union made several mistakes. Women of the Union followed a course that might have led either to new impasses if the life of the Commune was longer or to overcome its vulnerabilities. In any case, the Union acted consistently in order to defend the Commune and the workers.
The women of the Commune fortunately failed to respond to the ideal "of motherhood" imagined by the middle class. On the contrary, they succeeded to be “enshrined in the great heart of the working class”, along with their male companions who heroically gave their lives to make the Commune "harbinger of a new society," the society of socialism-communism.
Main subject category:
History
Keywords:
Paris Commune, women's movement, women's question, labor movement, communism, Elisabeth Dmitrieff, Karl Marx, Union de femmes pour la défense de Paris et les soins aux blessés, 19th century, French revolutionary movement
Index:
No
Number of index pages:
0
Contains images:
No
Number of references:
211
Number of pages:
99
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