Union des femmes pour la défense de Paris et les soins aux blessés

It was founded by Elisabeth Dmitrieff[1] on 11 April 1871 in the Larched room (79 Temple Road) in the 10th arrondissement,[2] Dmitrieff, who had been sent to Paris from London by Karl Marx as a representative of the First International, was a member of the central committee and remained general secretary of the Union's executive committee,[3] the only non-elected and non-revocable post of the organization.

[7] In early May, the women's union issued a manifesto calling equal treatment of gender, in line with the Commune's annulment of privileges and inequalities.

It did not designate roles based on trades but centralized the distribution of orders for women to complete and return to the workshop for delivery.

[9] This system differed from the piece-work originally proposed by Commune officials, which would have preserved the order of women staying at home and previous style of labor.

[7] The Commune's Committee of Public Safety had outlawed women on the battlefield on May 1,[10] but the Union remained committed to its militancy.

The poster "Call to Female Workers" published by the Paris Commune, 18 May 1871.
Paris Commune : "Call to Female Workers" of 18 May 1871, signed by the members of the executive committee
Nineteenth-century illustration of women carrying rifles behind a barricade in the Paris Commune. Several are wearing red, and one carries a red flag.
Barricade defended by women during semaine sanglante . Lithograph by Moloch [ fr ] . Musée Carnavalet , Paris.