Women in the American Revolution played various roles depending on their social status and their political views. The American Revolutionary War took place after Great Britain put in place the seven Coercive, or Intolerable Acts, in the colonies. Americans responded by going to war with the British; the war would not have been able to progress as it did without the widespread ideological, as well as material, support of both male and female inhabitants of the colonies. While formal politics did not include women, ordinary domestic behaviors became charged with political significance as women confronted the Revolution. Halting everyday activities, such as drinking British tea or ordering clothes from Britain, demonstrated Colonial opposition during the years leading up to and during the war. Although the war raised the question of whether or not a woman could be a patriot, women across separate colonies demonstrated that they could. Support was expressed through traditional female occupations in the home, the domestic economy, their husbands' and fathers' businesses.

Women participated by boycotting British goods, producing goods for soldiers, spying on the British, serving in the armed forces disguised as men. The war affected the lives of women who remained loyal to the crown, or was politically neutral. Women in the era of the Revolution were, for the most part, responsible for managing the household. Connected to these activities, women worked in the Homespun Movement. Instead of wearing or purchasing clothing made of imported British materials, Patriot women continued a long tradition of weaving, spun their cloth to make clothing for their families. In addition to the boycotts of British textiles, the Homespun Movementk served the Continental Army by producing needed clothing and blankets. Benjamin Franklin's youngest sister, Jane Mecom, could be called on for her soap recipe, instructions on how to build the soap-making forms. Wearing "clothes of your make and spinning," or "homespun," was a peaceful way of expressing support for the patriot cause. Just as spinning and weaving American cloth became a mechanism of resistance, so did many acts of consumption.

Nonimportation and nonconsumption became major weapons in the arsenal of the American resistance movement against British taxation without representation. Women played a major role in this method of defiance by denouncing silks and other luxuries in favor of homespun clothing made in spinning and quilting bees, sending a strong message of unity against British oppression. In 1769, Christopher Gadsden made a direct appeal to colonial women, saying that "our political salvation, at this crisis, depends altogether upon the strictest economy, that the women could, with propriety, have the principal management thereof." As managers of the domestic economy, housewives used their purchasing power to support the Patriot cause. Women refused to purchase British manufactured goods for use in their homes; the tea boycott, for example, was a mild way for a woman to identify herself and her household as part of the patriot war effort. While the Boston Tea Party of 1773 is the most recognized manifestation of this boycott, it is important to note that for years previous to that explosive action, Patriot women had been refusing to consume that same British product as a political statement.

The Edenton Tea Party represented one of the first coordinated and publicized political actions by women in the colonies. Fifty-one women in Edenton, North Carolina signed an agreement agreeing to boycott tea and other British products and sent it to British newspapers. Similar boycotts extended to a variety of British goods, women instead opted in favor of purchasing or making "American" goods. Though these "non-consumption boycotts" depended on national policy, it was women who enacted them in the household spheres in which they reigned. During the Revolution, buying American products became a patriotic gesture. Frugality became a political statement as households were asked to contribute to the wartime efforts; the call of women to support the war effort extended beyond contributions of the family economy of which they were in charge. Women helped the Patriot cause through organizations such as the Ladies Association in Philadelphia; the women of Philadelphia collected funds to assist in the war effort, which Martha Washington took directly to her husband, General George Washington.

Other states subsequently followed the example set by founders Esther de Berdt Reed and Sarah Franklin Bache. In 1780, the colonies raised over $300,000 through these female-run organizations. Mercy Otis Warren wrote scathing satirical plays that damaged the reputations of local British officials such as Governor Thomas Hutchinson and attorney general Jonathan Sewall. Poet Hannah Griffitts wrote verses urging Pennsylvania women to boycott British goods. Both women published their work anonymously; the revolution drove up prices. Women were among the food rioters who conducted over 30 raids on storehouses between 1776 and 1779, seizing goods from merchants they considered unreasonable. In Boston, a group of women marched down to a warehouse where a merchant was holding coffee that he refused

Lorna's Silence is a 2008 drama film by the Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. It was the winner of the 2008 LUX Prize, as well as the Best Screenplay Award at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Lorna, a young Albanian woman living in Belgium, is in sham marriage with a drug addict named Claudy who accepted her money to become her husband. Lorna's dream is to own a snack bar with Sokol. In order to see this dream fulfilled, she agrees to have another fake marriage with a Russian man, but Claudy is in the way. Fabio, the one who orchestrated the whole plan, will not wait for Claudy's divorce. Lorna had agreed to Fabio's plan of killing Claudy with an overdose, but Lorna is moved by Claudy's determination to stay clean, so she pleads Fabio to wait for their divorce. But Fabio does not understand why Lorna cares, an overdose will not look suspicious, because drug addicts relapse. Claudy attempts to stay off of drugs by locking himself in his apartment and asking Lorna to get him medicine at the pharmacy that will help with his pains.

One night, the pain becoming unbearable, he asks Lorna to call his doctor and take him to the hospital. There, he begs Lorna to stay with him, he leans against her like a child in need of protection. In order to obtain a quick divorce, Lorna decides to hurt herself and make it look like Claudy abused her, she does not manage to convince Claudy to beat her and ends up hurting herself at the hospital and crying out for help. The nurse who looks after her agrees to act as a witness for the police report; the same day, Lorna fills out a report. Fabio, who seems to control everything, has her followed, he asks her why she went to the police station, she explains that the divorce will be faster since she has found a way to make it look like Claudy is a physically abusive husband. The next day, Claudy goes to see Lorna at her workplace, he asks for money to prepare a meal for when she gets back from work. That night, Lorna receives a letter from the judge granting her a quick divorce, she leaves a depressed Claudy behind to let Fabio know the news.

When she tells Fabio that the divorce will now only take a month, he does not look pleased. She asks him to see if they will accept the delay. A short while after, as Lorna crosses the street to enter her apartment, Fabio in his taxi honks and as she gets close, telling her that the Russian has accepted to wait. At home, Claudy has invited one of his drug dealers over. Lorna forces the drug dealer out, locks the door, throws the key out of the window, makes love to Claudy; the next day and Lorna, who look like a content couple, go to a shop to get a new pair of keys and a bike for Claudy to pass the time and take his mind off drugs. After having agreed to see Claudy at her workplace at noon, Lorna runs playfully after his bike. In the next scene, Lorna chooses a pair of jeans that she puts in a bag that contained Claudy's belongings, she goes to the morgue where she gives the clothes and asks to see Claudy once more. She packs up a bag under the watchful eye of Fabio and Spirou, his assistant. Fabio tells her it was necessary to get rid of Claudy.

He explains that she would not have accepted his decision, so he could not have told her. He offers her a thousand euros for helping him out with his addiction. Lorna does not take the money; as they are heading out, two detectives ask to speak to Lorna. They question her about Claudy, after a while she tears up; the detectives leave convinced of her sincerity and innocence. Lorna finds a place to rent for the snack bar with Sokol, she meets the Russian man she is going to marry. She accepts the money Fabio gives her for her future marriage and takes the one thousand euros that she had refused. In the meantime, she discovers, she finds that she can not do it. She runs out of the doctor's office; when she tells Fabio that she is pregnant, he insists upon an abortion, mumbling that Sokol and she were crazy for not being careful. Lorna goes to the bank to open an account for her unborn child; the clerk tells her that the money can only be transferred to an actual account upon her child's birth. When the clerk asks for the baby's last name, she says "Moreau,", Claudy's last name.

Despite Fabio having told her not to talk about it, Lorna brings up the baby to the Russian during their second meeting. The Russian says through his interpreter that a baby is out of the question, Fabio gets angry with Lorna for bringing it up. After the Russians' departure, Fabio roughs out Lorna and shouts that she must do what he tells her to. Lorna crouches down. At the hospital where Fabio takes her, the doctor tells Lorna, but Lorna seems convinced. On her way to the hospital room where they want to keep her overnight, she meets the doctor who took care of Claudy, she asks the doctor if she remembers her, explains that she is Claudy's wife, requests that the doctor come say hi to her later. Fabio realizes that he can no longer use Lorna, so he meets up with her and Sokol and takes back a good amount of the money he had given her; the next day, Lorna once again has packed up all her things, Fabio takes her sim card from her cell phone before she enters the car that Spirou, Fabio's assistant, is driving.

In the car, when Lorna asks Sp

Diane Louise Augustine de Polignac, was a French aristocrat and courtier, a lady-in-waiting to Princess Élisabeth of France. She was the daughter of Louis Héracle Armand, marquis de Polignac and Diane Adélaïde Zéphirine de Mancini, never married, she had been introduced at court during the reign of Louis XV, served as reader and as lady-in-waiting to the countess of Artois in 1774-78, to Princess Élisabeth of France from 1778 until 1789. She was described as clever and with a sarcastic wit, she emigrated with the rest of the Polignac family after the outbreak of the French revolution in 1789. Diane de Polignac is the main character of the novel Les Adieux à la reine by Chantal Thomas. Diane de Polignac, Journal d'Italie et de Suisse, Paris, 1789 Diane de Polignac, Mémoires sur la vie de la duchesse de Polignac, Piccadilly, 1796 Jeanne-Louise-Henriette Campan, Mémoire sur la vie privée de Marie-Antoinette, reine de France et de Navarre, t. I, 1823