Even after the turbulent events that culminated in the Revolution of 1848, French women remained disenfranchised and disillusioned due to their exclusion from the public domain. However, a group of pioneering women persistently challenged the issue of civil rights and the legal minority of women in many genres: beginning with feminist journals then satirical poetry, fiction, pamphlets, posters, treatises, inspirational slogans, letters, and even travelogues. This book gives an overview of the corpus of writings by women at this historic moment and examines the political culture into which these writings were produced. Joyce Dixon-Fyle argues that the genres selected by women writers such as Eugénie Niboyet, Jeanne Deroin, Jenny d’Héricourt, Juliette Adam, Maria Deraimes were simply modes of expression determined less by choice than by the repressive politics and censorship of the July Monarchy, which was relentless in its attempts to silence and marginalize women.
