The arrival of women committed to democracy in the political press during the 1848 revolutions have been studied, but the ways in which they tried to resist the following period of reaction is far less known. A comparison of the last forums of the “women of 1848” — a German weekly and a French almanac — enables us to identify what was “possible” or “thinkable” in the circumstances under which their respective authors wrote and the countries in which they were living. This article deals with similarities and differences that can be observed in the strategies employed by these women in order to make themselves heard and in the substance of their demands. The intersection of gender identity, national identity and social class identity offers different avenues for interpreting this comparison and shows the tension between the subjugation of these women to their assigned roles and their aspiration to self-determination.