Women and the Creation of Republican France, 1852–1914

The Second Republic was born in hope in February 1848, mortally wounded in the June uprising, and killed off by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte’s coup d’état of December 1851. Twelve months later Louis-Napoléon established the Second Empire and became Emperor Napoleon III. Martial law was imposed in December 1851, and strict limits on rights of assembly prevented any public discussion of political ideas. Republican organisations and publications were banned, and activists imprisoned or driven into exile. Women who had been prominent in the campaign for women’s rights were amongst those prosecuted, especially committed socialists like Jeanne Deroin and Pauline Roland. Deroin fled to England, while Roland was imprisoned in Algeria. The undemocratic Second Empire was not receptive to arguments for female political rights.