Unknown artist

On 5 October 1789, the French king Louis XVI signed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen presented to him by the National Constituent Assembly. He did it under the pressure of the crowds that came to Versailles to protest against bread shortage in Paris. Women constituted a majority among the revolted masses, and in the iconography of the Revolution their march on Versailles holds a special place. This symbolic image shows the moment of birth of a new political player and the efficiency of direct pressure on the government; it also shows how a traditional crowd is transformed into a politicising, revolutionary force able to topple any hierarchy. At the same time, this image proves the failure of the revolutionary ideas, because women's position and political role did not change. In response to the Declaration signed by the king and granting rights only to men, in 1791 Olympe de Gouges, a French feminist and playwright, published the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen.