Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/71

 to men in the fore-named countries is larger than in Romance lands, and that may have something to do with it; but whatever the reason, the training in self-reliance has had its effect in the stimulation of self-respect, the result being a more widespread and insistent demand for the opening of new doors for women.

It is an interesting but saddening fact that the French Revolution, which brought in its terrible train so much freedom to the world at large, was the cause of the revocation of rights up to that time held by French women of rank. Before the Revolution women landowners might do whatever it was in the province of the landowner of the times to do—levy taxes, raise armies, and administer justice. The Revolutionary Declaration of the Rights of Man applied only to men, and every effort of the leaders of the women to secure a corresponding measure of freedom for their own sex met with stern repulse by the men of the Revolution, who evidently thought that what was good for them was not good for their wives and daughters. Although women took a prominent part in all the activities of the Revolution, and sacrificed themselves with as much zeal as any of the men, their clubs were ruthlessly closed by the Committee of Public Safety, in the alleged interests of the public peace,