Citoyennes and Icaria

Citoyennes and Icaria is the historical account of Citoyennes' quest for full equality in seven Icarian colonies in America, between the years 1848 and 1898. Their requests for equal opportunities and rights were dismissed by the male Assembly. In response, the Citoyennes told the governing body that they would not be "silenced by a sentiment of equality." Icaria was a community where everyone shared all goods in common. It was premised on imaginative depictions in a utopian novel, Voyage en Icaria by Etienne Cabet (1840). Women and men were obliged to marry. No dowry was necessary, for the state provided housing, food, material goods, medical care, funded modern research, and lifelong security for all. Like men, women were educated and could become professionals, even doctors or priestesses. In the novel, the community goals took fifty years to realize. The Icarians who came to America worked towards the book's principled social aims. The first immigration left for America shortly before the February 23, 1848 Revolution. The excited Icarian women, who planned to leave in March, were subsequently addressed as Citoyennes. They joined the French feminists' drive to be included in universal suffrage, but were not. However, the Citoyennes anticipated better conditions in the Icarian colony. This chronicle follows their efforts to have a political vote, which did come in 1879 in one Icarian Branch. Although legal and economic problems led to the final dissolution of the community in 1898, the Citoyennes legacy has survived, and now is carefully documented in Professor Garno's book.