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List of Objections and Grievances of the Fairer Sex

Cahier des représentations et doléances du beau sexe, or List of Objections and Grievances of the Fairer Sex, is a document addressed to King Louis XVI written on behalf of all the women of France, though it is unknown who exactly authored the list. It was published on June 15, 1789, approximately one month before the storming of the Bastille. The authors begin by asserting that their voices have not been properly heard; the existing laws have not taken into account women’s experiences and needs. They assert that Queens have been just as effective rulers as Kings have, and that their political participation is quite valid, even needed, as a measured and comforting voice of reason. They then set out to construct a comprehensive list of laws or orders they would like the King to consider, laws which would directly impact the lives of women in positive ways.

Interestingly, these laws primarily concern the private sphere: expanded rights of women to divorce, marriage relations, comportment within households, piety and propriety of men, women, and children alike. For example, the first grievance demands that men within the Estates-General who behave poorly with their families have their membership revoked, ultimately condemning men for their behavior both in the private and public sphere. The authors’ grievances largely concern the typical woman's sphere, which was largely private and within the home. However, women authors by voicing these concerns politicized this female dominion and consequently brought forth these issues as public and political concerns. The letter does more than voice the complaints of women, it asserts a female political agency in a nation where women were denied political participation.

This letter is not “revolutionary” in the conventional sense of the word, for the authors attempt to work within the monarchical system to facilitate change rather than attempt to overthrow the system altogether. They appeal to the King and ensure that his authority remains unquestioned in every aspect. Still, the document exhibits key revolutionary aspects for the French Revolution and the discourse leading up to it. Questions posed by the Revolution regarding the Nation and the rights and identities of the citizens within, drove women to question the state of their own citizenship. This list is an eloquent example of this growing female political awareness.

List
OF OBJECTIONS
AND
GRIEVANCES
BY THE FAIRER SEX
Addressed to the King at the meeting of
the States-General
Ridendo dicere verum,
Quid vetat
79
MARSEILLE
From the Printing Office of JEAN MOSSY , Père & Fils;
Printers Libraries, La Canebière .
1789
June 15

Translated by Megan Rash and Laura Williams

List
OF OBJECTIONS
AND
GRIEVANCES
BY THE FAIRER SEX
Addressed to the King at the meeting of
the States-GeneralSire,

We are often accused of talking too much: it is however quite clear that we are not in a hurry to speak since our Grievances come only after the endless prattle of men. These grievances, precisely because they are delayed, will be all the more thoughtful and justified.

We confess, Sire, that we were surprised as well as humiliated not to be invited to the Estates-General of the Nation, as we are its most amiable, pleasant and sometimes most sensible part. We certainly were in a position to enlighten its discussions.

History demonstrates that there have been great Queens, just as there have been great Kings, and that women can rule as effectively as men.

It is true that in France, it is a crucial and sacred saying that the crown should not fall into the hands of a woman.¹ But it should at least be acknowledged that men do not possess the exclusive privilege of good advice compared to us.

However, nothing will be lost. We dare, Sire, to present directly to Your Majesty our list of objections in the name of those of our sex among the Nobility and the Third Estate. We could have written them together with our Clergy; for now that all principles are forgotten and all rules broken, the Holy Mothers and their Nuns could have abandoned their cloisters without a shadow of difficulty, and come to discuss with us the important items on this list. But, we are far more concerned than they, as Your Majesty will see by the nature of the claims brought to the Crown.

We are not yet suffering from an epidemic of delusion, pretending along with some suspicious and incendiary writers that there is no constitution in France, or that if there is one, it must be changed under the pretext of abuse. These people, who for the most part have nothing to lose, wish to disrupt everything in hopes of fishing in murky waters. These people resemble Architects eager for profits, who in order to patch up a few holes would want to demolish the entire house. We will agree that there are abuses, and that it is important to reform them. We add, Sire, that you alone are responsible for these reforms, not only because

1. The original phrase in French is tomber en quenouille. A quenouille is a spindle used to weave rough fibers together, and it was considered women’s work. -TRANS.

you alone have the necessary power to make them, but also because it would be in your interest, for your happiness and your glory are the prosperity of your People.

We begin by urging Your Majesty not to let your authority be attacked. It will always be the most solid foundation for the tranquility and happiness of the Nation. The very abuse of Sovereign power would be a hundred times less threatening than the anarchy which would bring about its fall, and which would become the source of all public and personal evils.

We then ask that if by chance some Deputies of the Estates-General were found suffering and convicted of misbehaving in their families, they adamantly be excluded from this noble Assembly. One is obviously incapable of properly regulating the State if one cannot regulate one’s own household.

Whatever strong reasons we may often have to desire divorce, we do not presume to ask for it. Although we are not Theologians, we know our Catechism. We acknowledge that the unbreakable nature of marriage is bestowed by God, and no human power can change it. If our husbands complain about us, it is usually their fault. Even if the wrong rests on us, it is a hardship they should suffer with patience and repentance, both of which almost all of them are ever-lacking.

At the same time we oppose the enactment of such an anti-catholic law, revolting and absurd a law as divorce, we conjure Your Majesty to publish another one, whose principal articles

are presented here, debated at length among us, and moreover approved by sensible men; because there still are some.

Article I. Any husband who has lodged a complaint against his wife for a crime, which we are not to name, shall be dismissed and he shall be liable to her for large damages if it is proven that she can make the same complaint against him.

II. Any woman who has the same criticism for her husband will be allowed to separate from him; and this separation will be successful in the eyes of the law.

III. What is it to solicit a Judge, if not to ask him to tilt the scales, even harming good laws, in favor of the requesting Party? Any Judge who has been solicited before the verdict by a young and pretty woman, whether she pleads in her name or has been sent by her husband, may be disqualified by the opposite Party, as if he were a relative of the petitioner. This point has been found to be of the upmost importance, for it renders a great service to the Magistrates themselves by not exposing them to subtle temptation. This article has been passed by the great multitude of the voices of our old and ugly.

IV. In order to extinguish as much as possible extravagant luxuries that while seeming prosperous is the principal cause of public misery, we declare that Merchants or Fashion Merchants should take no legal action against the husbands, for supplies made for their wives, and that husbands will be required to pay only the Butcher, the Baker and other suppliers of foremost necessary goods. We have furiously debated this point of request in our Assemblies. It is

far from what would be called a large number of votes, but it is the sincere wish of all reasonable women. Your Majesty is humbly implored to take this request into consideration.

V. There must be Nobles in any State. As much of a Republic as it was, there were some in Ancient Rome, the Order of the Patricians, and the Order of the Knights like that of the Plebeians. It is the diversity of ranks in Society that constitutes its strength and harmony. But it is equally fair that the Nobility should behave nobly. Therefore, laws will wisely be established that every Duchess or other woman of nobility who takes on the tone, dress and care of a trollop, will be disqualified from nobility; and that every trollop who assumes the air of the Duchess will be condemned to several years at a Hospital.

VI. You are right in thinking that girls of this variety have not been called to our Assemblies; however, we have occupied ourselves with what concerns them. We require that the people be permitted, when they meet one of these girls in brilliant company, escorted by well-built and well-dressed valets, to cover with mud the carriage, the mistress and the people. It is indeed a most moderate punishment put upon women who are the disgrace of their sex, and who by the display of their splendor openly insult the poor virtue.

VII. When it is proved that one of them has trapped our husbands or children into her nets of debauchery and drowned them in debts, we demand that her property be confiscated for the profit of those who were its first and legitimate owners;

and that the spoiler be marked on the forehead with a hot iron bearing these two letters: P.P. Public Plague.

VIII. Women who pass their days and even their nights playing games, especially those who allow these games in their homes, from whatever condition and state they may be, will be considered by the Police to belong to the class of those in the article aforementioned, with all the more reason that they are scarcely more scrupulous than the former, as far as gallantry is concerned.

IX. Women, whether noblemen or commoners, will no longer be permitted to use, or rather to waste time making knots or other useless tasks. They will be obligated, under penalty of losing their dowry, to make shirts for their husbands and their children, to hem their table linens, even their dishcloths, which will be their share in the glory of the femme forte². The Notaries and Tabellions shall be required to insert this clause in all Marriage Contracts.

X. If the distinction between the ranks is necessary in the Social Order, it is also appropriate that the toilet should be matched to rank. Therefore, it will be expressly forbidden, under penalty, for the Merchants of diamonds and jewels, the Merchants of fabric and fashions to make pretentious displays of themselves by wearing these; so that during a walk in a public space and everywhere else, we know with whom we are and we can distinguish a Princess from a petite Bourgeoise and a Hairdresser. The great number of women in the Third Estate rejected this motion; but it is still the unanimous wish of the women in this third Order who have common sense.

XI. It will be ordered that our children, both

2. A strong woman. -TRANS.

boys and girls, will marry in the future only in the class where they were born, and as they say, inter pares,³ so that the ambition or greed of our husbands may no longer force their children into ill-assorted and unfortunate arrangements. The result is that we will no longer see, on the one hand, a great Lord marry a small Financier in order to despise her person after having grown fat from her fortune; on the other hand; a Bourgeoise, proud of a great name that her father bought for her with a large dowry, disregard and scorn her parents, or, even worse, seek revenge through her bad behavior for the spite of her husband.

XII. Those of our children, who have reached the age of marriage, got on their knees to beg us to insert in our list this article; to which we have lent ourselves all the more readily because it appeared to us in conformity with reason and natural equity. They do agree it would be dangerous for Society and for the happiness of the children themselves, not to respect their parents, the rights of nature and the wisdom of their experience; to ask that the parents not be allowed to prevent them from engaging in dishonorable and disastrous engagements: but they observe that the power of parents over their children in our customs is not tyrannical and unlimited. They say, it is for them to enlighten our reasons, but not to force our hearts. It is up to them to watch over our conduct and guide it, not to arbitrarily constrain our will unless it is blind and perverse. We therefore desire that the law may allow us to follow our inclinations to make a choice on which our happiness depends, and to marry according to our taste, whenever

3. A Latin phrase meaning “first among equals.” -TRANS.

our parents cannot prove that this taste is strange and perverted; so that a man in order to satisfy the whims or the interests of his parents, should no longer be forced to marry a rich ugly hag; nor a young girl to choose between the convent and a fortune.⁴

XIII. The heads of families who have pronounced amoral and impious discourse in the presence of their wives, their children, or their servants, and who afterwards will dare complain about the conduct of one of them, will be relegated to the Petites-Maisons⁵ indefinitely.

XIV. What maternal solicitude and tenderness tends to inspire us to ask with the keenest eagerness, is a prompt and complete repairing of the public education system. May we have religious and virtuous Masters, enlightened and disinterested, full of zeal for the public good, for the true happiness of their Pupils and the honor of the families. Let us no longer expose our children to ignorant and degenerate Tutors and Philosophers, who are able to spoil the mind and heart of the youth imprudently assigned to their care. It is the only means of effecting the desired regeneration of the French Nation.

XV. We beg, as much as we can, against the indefinite freedom of the Press. It is the abuse perpetrated by the unfortunate Press which has brought us where we are; it has destroyed all the principles of morality and submission to legitimate authority; which has prepared minds for disagreement and revolt: today the effects are only too visible. Whatever precaution might be taken to prevent the unfortunate consequences of this liberty so desired, it would be the height of misfortune for the State. The most

4. “Fortune” was translated from the French word “magot” which can mean either a monkey or a large sum of money. In this text, we suspect that it may be a play on words for both, which is impossible to adequately portray. -TRANS.
5. A hospital for the insane. -TRANS.

severe penalties might be enacted against the Authors of bad Books, and require them to put their signature on all their Works, it is always the worst minds that write the worst Books and they always believe them to be good, for the reason that they are bad. Why then expose them to undergo the punishment pronounced against them? Moreover, these books will only be thought bad once they have already circulated in the Public, the damage therefore will already be done. The more severe we are toward the Authors, the more eagerly the Public will run after their Writings. If one finds it inconvenient to subject the Writer to the humor or ineptitude of an isolated Censor, then first choose your Censors carefully; then form a sort of Court composed of five, or at least three, to judge every work intended for printing. Some wicked quibbler may be inclined to say that this issue is too serious for us, and will ask us if we know what we are meddling with. We will respond, firstly, that as many of us have the fantasy, or even the talent to be writers, it is important to honor our sex, that none of us has the freedom to publish nonsense. We will then say that in such matters, it is the greatest interest of our children that is at stake, since it is the bad Books that have lost the current generation, and that if they should continue to be produced freely they would do still greater harm to the future generations. Again, it is they who broke the obstacles to passions, who taught that pleasure is the first law of man, or rather his only law. It is they who told our children that it is only the weakness of infancy that gives us rights over them, that when we impede their liberty, we are no

more than honorable enemies. &c. &c. &c. Will everyone say that this is not our business?

We have, SIRE, many other points of objections to put before Your Majesty’s eyes, but we end our Grievances here, if only to prove again that we do not like to talk as much as men believe we do. We rely on your wisdom to create the best laws concerning our sex. It is not said, Sire, that you do not worship our sex, but infinitely better, you are fair and good. Everyone knows it, it is the cry of all of Europe. Now it is from this goodness, this justice, that we expect with the greatest confidence our salvation and our glory.

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