CITIZENSHIP ACROSS BORDERS: ETTA PALM D'AELDERS AND TRANSNATIONAL CITIZENSHIP, 1788-1798

Etta Palm d'Aelders, a Dutch woman who lived in Paris, is known for her feminist activism with the Cercle Social during the early years of the French Revolution. Her treatises on the legal position of women and her role in setting up the first female political club, the Amies de la Verite, have received particular attention. However, her attempts at carving out a similar role for women in the Dutch and Batavian Republics have been neglected. This article reconsiders Aelders as a transnational activist and 'conduit' in the movement of ideas about citizenship across the border into the Dutch and then Batavian Republics. Combining French and Dutch sources on Aelders demonstrates developments within her own understanding of citizenship, as well as the ways in which she drew on different debates in order to carve out a public political position for women in both the French and Dutch Republics. Aelderss experiences between these political regimes shaped her activism, her understanding of womens citizenship, and her own identity as a transnational citizen. Her writings offer an invaluable micro study of the repetition, transplantation, and adaptation of revolutionary ideas across national borders.