Women in War

[ZenGum]

It was reproduced many times across the 1790s and early 1800s, but by the early 1800s the tenor had altered:

I can think of two reasons.

Up until then, the fighting in Europe was done by professional armies, for their pay, under the directive of various machiavellian courts. Come 1790 and the wars of the French revolution, the fighting was done by enthusiastic citizen armies, fighting for victory, motivated by a cause (as misused, misrepresented and misunderstood as it was). By 1800 you had Napoleon and his ambitions. The fighting was more lethal, there was a lot more of it, and Johnny often did not come marching home again.

I suspect that war became more brutal, and more widely known to be brutal, during this period.

At the same time, the political upheaval of the era could (and I'm speculating* here) have caused a sociological anti-revolution i.e. all the doubt and upheaval in the political sphere made people long for stability and security in the domestic and gender-relations sphere. This could lead to a push for the stronger division of masculine and feminine role models.


* making shit up.

everyone assumes her to be French