Seated characters, from left to right: Alexandre Dumas, George Sand, Franz Liszt, Comtesse Marie d'Agoult. Standing characters: Victor Hugo, Niccolò Paganini, Gioachino Rossini, 1840. Painting by Josef Danhauser, Alte Nationalgalerie. PD.
movement, they were also prone to criticize each other's motives and styles.
Flora Tristan mainly wrote articles for the newspapers and books to inspire the workers to form unions, and fight for their rights. The Workers' Union (1843) was the last of her writings and gave her the public persona of a political activist.
Through The Workers' Union, a comparison can be drawn with similar Utopian Socialists including Charles Fourier (whom she knew personally) and French Socialists, the Saint Simonians, whose works she had studied. However, she took it a step further, arguing that the liberation of women was needed in order to complete the emancipation of the working class. Her suggestion was to create a Workers' Union. And, to appeal to the male ego—for she knew that in the post-revolution French society, women would not be easily considered equal just because they were human beings—she made the argument based on what would benefit the male majority.
The Worker's Union explained that the liberation of women would be the continuation of what the French Revolution had initiated. Building upon other’s ideas, and socialist concepts, she created a logical, reasonable and a realistically achievable plan, and was able to include women’s rights as a necessity to create an independent Workers' Union.
George Sand did recognize Tristan’s effort, calling her “courageous,” while bashing her on the other hand. Sand viewed Tristan, who had left her children behind, as a horrible mother encouraging women to do the wrong thing. Therefore, this woman couldn’t possibly be the model for the women’s rights movement. Sand probably never understood the reasons; being a bourgeoise, she didn't have to face the financial difficulties that Tristan found herself in after she left her husband.
In parallel, Flora Tristan could not understand George Sand, accusing her of hiding behind a male pseudonym and using her novels to defend feminism, which was another way of hiding. To her, Sand meant to pass as a man, and therefore, it was an injustice to women. Even though Sand never made that assertion, it was intentional, as she believed that
39 | Ceres Magazine | Spring 2016