Portrait of Lord Melvyn Bragg, host of In Our Time

Women in the French Revolution

Historians since the late 20th century have debated how women shared in the French Revolution and what impact it had on French women. Women had no political rights in pre-Revolutionary France; they were considered "passive" citizens, forced to rely on men to determine what was best for them.

3 episodes

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  1. Germaine de Staël

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas, works and life of Germaine de Stael (1766-1817), a literary critic, author, opponent of Napoleon and developer of Romanticism.

    16 November 2017

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    Featuring: Catriona Seth, Alison Finch, Katherine Astbury

     
  2. Marie Antoinette

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Austrian princess who, while still a child, married the future Louis XVI of France only to face hostility and death under the French Revolution.

    8 November 2018

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    Featuring: Catriona Seth, Katherine Astbury, David McCallam

     
  3. Olympe de Gouges

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life, ideas and works of the Frenchwoman who wrote The Declaration of the Rights of Woman in 1791 during the French Revolution

    21 April 2022

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    Featuring: Catriona Seth, Katherine Astbury, Sanja Perovic