In the Romance countries the woman's rights movement is hampered by Romance customs and by the Catholic religion. The number of women in these countries is in many cases smaller than the number of men. In general, the girls are married at an early age, almost always through the negotiations of the parents. The education of women is in some respects very deficient. FRANCE Total population: 38,466,924. Women: 19,346,369. Men: 18,922,651. Federation of French Women's Clubs. Woman's Suffrage League. The European woman's rights movement was born in France; it is a child of the Revolution of 1789. When a whole country enjoys freedom, equality, and fraternity, woman can no longer remain in bondage. The Declaration of the Rights of Man apply to Woman also. The European woman's rights movement is based on purely logical principles; not, as in the United States, on the practical exercise of woman's right to vote. This purely theoretical origin is not denied by the advocates of the woman's rights movement in France. It ought to be mentioned that the principles of the woman's rights movement were brought from France to England by Mary Wollstonecraft, and were stated in her pamphlet, _A Vindication of the Rights of Women_. But enthusiastic Mary Wollstonecraft did not form a school in England, and the organized English woman's rights movement did not cast its lot with this revolutionist. What Mary Wollstonecraft did for England, Olympe de Gouges did for France in 1789; at that time she dedicated to the Queen her little book, _The Declaration of the Rights of Women_ (_La declaration des droits des femmes_). It happened that The Declaration of the Rights of Man (_La declaration des droits de l'homme_) of 1789 referred only to the men. The National Assembly recognized only male voters, and refused the petition of October 28, 1789, in which a number of Parisian women demanded universal suffrage in the election of national representatives. Nothing is more peculiar than the attitude of the men advocates of liberty toward the women advocates of liberty. At that time woman's struggle for liberty had representatives in all social groups. In the aristocratic circles there was Madame de Stael, who as a republican (her father was Swiss) never doubted the equality of the sexes; but by her actions showed her belief in woman's right to secure the highest culture and to have political influence. Madame de Stael's social position and her wealth enabled her to spread these views of woman's rights; she was never dependent on the men advocates of freedom. Madame Roland was typical of the educated republican bourgeoisie. She participated in the revolutionary drama and was a "political woman." On the basis of historical documents it can be asserted that the men advocates of freedom have not forgiven her.