Private and public acts: Marie Armande Gacon-Dufour's identity, from the French Revolution to the Empire

One of the important legacies of the French revolutionary period is that both men and women became committed to defining radical political change with their words and actions. French writer Marie Armande Gacon-Dufour was a full participant in the changes and struggles of her times, which forged both her private and her public identity. Reconstructing women’s biographies in this period is not an easy task, as their memory is not well preserved. This paper retraces the paths of Gacon’s personal and intellectual life, focusing on her attitude towards divorce. The revolutionary law of 20 September 1792 which legalized divorce was considered a breakthrough for women. Gacon took advantage of it in February 1793, but she also wrote on divorce years later, when Bonaparte, as First Consul, was readying to revert to patriarchal family policies.