Stunted Progressive Thinking: An Argument for Women's Equality with Echoes of Traditional Gender Stereotypes in 19th Century France

    The article titled "Men and Women as Criminals" in the Nottingham Evening Post briefly unpacks the comparative study of male and female crime in France during the late 1880's. Before diving into the details, the primary researcher Maître Proal (a judicial officer) claims the study to prove the theory, "women more closely resemble the prehistorical types of the human race than men" as false. Following this statement to support Maître Proal's claim, the journalist of the article provides statistical data of crimes committed by men and women along with personal observations indicated from the information.

    In France during the year of 1889, 4,298 people were convicted for a felony. From this number, 3,672 of them consisted of men and the remaining 626 were women. Women were discovered to have committed crimes of murder, arson, theft, and fraud. However, with these crimes the amount of male offenders greatly exceeded that of women. In regards to "popular" female crime, there were greater numbers in cases of poisonings and shoplifting.  

    With the statistics, the journalist and Maître Proal made some notable observations pertaining mostly towards women. Some of these observations included statements such as, "women, it may be said, are prevented by their want of muscular strength from committing murders of a brutal kind." Another observation stated that, "in cases of shoplifting women are in excess of men, and ladies are more frequently convicted than women of the poorer class...[this] notwithstanding the fact that in France women are nearly as often in business as men." The end of the article concludes its findings with the final observation of Maître Proal's, stating that "in France seven-eighths of the criminals are males, which...is a reason for placing women on an equal footing with men in regard to civil and other rights." 

    From the statistical data provided, the journalist's viewpoints, and Maître Proal's statements, there appears to be a labeling of crimes to be either of masculine or feminine quality. Both the journalist and Maître Proal appear to place more of an emphasis on the crimes committed by women to further separate and place a solid foundation between both genders. Perhaps, by implying that there is a clear connection between crimes and gender, there becomes a new layer to crime in viewing it as a gendered action and an additional layer to gender and society's determination to separate ideas of femininity and masculinity. Arguably, by deeming crimes as gendered the journalist and Maître Proal put both men and women in a stereotyped box of masculinity and femininity. 

    The main purpose behind the article was to illustrate how women in society needed to be viewed and treated as men's equals, but the content within still holds a traditional male dominance perspective against women. Each of these negative instances all refer back to the idea of women being the weaker and lesser sex. While the brief study attempts to bring forth progressive ideas there is still the presence of male patriarch ideologies throughout the text to remind the reader of the traditional perspective. Perhaps, this way of thinking has led us to where we are now as a society. In a time where we are ushering progressive ways of life, but are still surrounded by regressive ideas.  

Bibliography

"Men and Women As Criminals." Nottingham Evening Post, no. 3674, 16 May 1890, p.2. British Library Newspapers.