"Workers, try to understand this well: the law that enslaves women and denies her education also oppresses you, the proletariat men."
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Flora Tristan, A Forerunner Woman by Magda Portal Trafford Publishing
book review by Linda Murdock
The introductory material may frustrate some readers, who want to immediately delve into the life of this French/Peruvian union activist of the 1830s and 40s. However, the late author herself (1900-1989) was a Peruvian citizen who was exiled for her beliefs. For her, it is important that everyone be aware of Flora Tristan in the context of her fight for equality, not only among the sexes, but also among all workers of the world. It is essential that the reader understand that Tristan obtains her socio-economic beliefs as a direct result of personal experiences living with the oppressed workers of Paris and London.
Most of the so-called social radicals or Utopists of the times presented ideas that went hand-in-hand with the people in power. Flora Tristan believed in the power of a united world union that would build establishments to help educate children; medicate and care for those injured on the job; and shelter abused women and the elderly. This "Forerunner Woman" was indeed ahead of her time and intimate with the worker's plight. Some of her ideas on the subject of worker's unions pre-date both Marx and Engels.
Hers is a remarkable story and this is an important work in identifying the history of workers, unions, and the feminist movement. Excerpts from Tristan's writing help clarify her ideas in her own words, and the author includes a bibliography of her work and of others writings about her. Tristan would be chagrined to know that French women didn't get the right to vote until 1945, and Peru's women had to wait until 1956. A time line of further "Milestones Towards Emancipation of Women" is another valuable addition to the book.