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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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
Featuring: Catriona Seth, Alison Finch, Katherine Astbury
CultureFrench travel writers19th-century French novelists, 19th-century French women writersConversationalistsFrench Roman Catholics19th-century French letter writersFrench women philosophersFrench literary criticsWriters from Paris19th-century French philosophersFrench salon-holdersFrench feminists18th-century philosophersConverts to Roman Catholicism from Calvinism, Romantic philosophersWomen in the French Revolution18th-century French women writersPeople of the First French EmpireFrench women novelistsMarie 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
Featuring: Catriona Seth, Katherine Astbury, David McCallam
HistoryNobility from ViennaAustrian Roman Catholics, Austrian princesses, Daughters of emperorsNavarrese royal consortsFrench Roman CatholicsExecuted French women, French people executed by guillotine during the French RevolutionRoyal reburialsPeople of the War of the First CoalitionQueens consort of FranceDaughters of kingsDauphines of France, Dauphines of ViennoisBurials at the Basilica of Saint-DenisWomen in the French RevolutionDaughters of queens regnantOlympe 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
Featuring: Catriona Seth, Katherine Astbury, Sanja Perovic
CultureWomen religious writers18th-century French philosophersFrench abolitionistsExecuted French women, French people executed by guillotine during the French RevolutionFrench women philosophersExecuted writersExecuted philosophersFrench women dramatists and playwrights18th-century philosophersFrench deistsWomen in the French RevolutionDeist philosophers18th-century French women writersFrench political philosophers