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  • Writer's pictureMaria Cruz Velazquez

The Most Unfortunate of Endings

Updated: Apr 26, 2019


So, what ended up becoming of Pauline Léon? After dedicating her livelihood towards ensuring the independence and freedom of women sans-coulettes all throughout France? She, along with countless other female leaders who were courageous enough to confront their male oppressors, were lost to history. Léon is one of the many women whose voices were excluded from the narrative, despite their contributions to their society – a tragedy we see countless of times.

Some speculate this is because she kept no journal or writings of her own; therefore, much of the information we have of her are from a second account and cannot be factually proven. Others say it is because she is overshadowed by more renowned figures during her time, such as her counterpart Clare Lacombe. Still, it does not make it any less unfortunate that despite Léon being one of the many courageous individuals that was not idly complicit in the abuses perpetrated by the monarchy, there is little left to tell of her story.

Following the termination of the Society of Revolutionary Republican Women, Léon faded into relative obscurity. All we know is that she was involved with the Femmes Sans-Culottes before getting married to Jean-Theophilus Leclerc, the leader of the radical Enragés; however, she played a much more diminished role in this stage in her life, becoming another example of how the French Revolution failed its own people. In 1838, Léon peacefully passed away at the age of 70/

Image sources: Wikimedia Commons Public Domain

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