Gendered Behavior in Subsistence Riots: The French Flour War of 1775

This paper describes and analyzes gender-specific forms of behavior and theaters of action during the Paris Basin subsistence riots of 1775, known as the Flour War. During the Flour War, the same skeletal form of disturbance-- the taxtion populaire -- predominated everywhere, yet behavior and the gender composition of the "crowd" varied considerably. Men and women participated in various proportions and in particular spheres. In particular, the Flour War incorporated an unprecedented degree of male rioting in the countryside, in addition to the classically female protest in market towns and cities. These patterns depended on such variables as the local relationship to the production and marketing of grain, and the socio-economic and political status of men of the common people relative to that of women. The Flour War thus represents an episode in the reshaping of social structure, gender roles, and popular protest in Ancien Régime France.