Women in the Paris Commune

Yeah I've heard of them - Louise Michel was famously accused of being one. The idea behind it being that if the govt re-took Paris they'd be none of it left to take. Don't know how many of them there were though, seems like they were a bit demonised, like a more hardcore version of the current casseurs

From what I've read, it's not even certain they existed; there was a lot of paranoia about them though; any woman holding a bottle was suspect. Louise Michel claimed in her court case afterward that the burnings were only a defense aginst the invaders, a wall of fire. There were a few fake documents produced with orders from the Commune to burn everything down.

A book exists called The Women Incendaries by Edith Thomas, published in the 60s about these women. I guess it's long out of print; if I remember right it concludes that there's no evidence they were a formal organisation, but that women were heavily involved in the Commune as nurses, canteen workers, soldiers etc - and arsonists.