Debating the Woman Question in the French Third Republic, 1870–1920 (New Studies in European History)
Cambridge University Press, 12/3/2020
EAN 9781316638408, ISBN10: 1316638405
Paperback, 712 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 4.1 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
Karen Offen offers a magisterial reconstruction and analysis of the debates around relations between women and men, how they are constructed, and how they should be organized, that raged in France and its French-speaking neighbors from 1870 to 1920. The 'woman question' encompassed subjects from maternity and childbirth, and the upbringing and education of girls to marriage practices and property law, the organization of households, the distribution of work inside and outside the household, intimate sexual relations, religious beliefs and moral concerns, government-sanctioned prostitution, economic and political citizenship, and the politics of population growth. The book shows how the expansion of economic opportunities for women and the drop in the birth rate further exacerbated the debates over their status, roles, and possibilities. With the onset of the First World War, these debates were temporarily placed on hold, but they would be revived by 1916 and gain momentum during France's post-war recovery.
General introduction
'what do women want?' and quotations
Part I. Familiarization
Romance with the Republic, 1870s–1889
1. Relaunching the Republican campaign for women's rights
2. Educators, medical and social scientists, and population experts debate the woman question, 1870–1889
3
The politics of the family, women's work, and public morality, 1870–1890
4. The revolutionary centennial
promoting women and women's rights at the 1889 International Exposition in Paris
Part II. Encounter
the Third Republic Faces Feminist Claims, 1890–1900
Quotations and introductory remarks
5. The birth and 'take-off' of feminism in republican France
6
Rights or protection for working women?
7. Must maternity be women's form of patriotism? 8. The new century greets the woman question, 1900
Part III. Climax
Mainstreaming the Woman Question, 1901–1914
Quotations and introductory remarks
9. Building a force to reckon with the Republic
The Conseil National des Femmes Françaises and its allies, 1900–1914
10. Defining, historicizing, contesting, and defending feminism
early 20th century developments
11. Refocusing the state
depopulation, maternity, and the quest for a woman-friendly state
12. Emerging labor issues
equal pay for equal work, travail àdomicile, and women's right to work
13. 'The alpha and omega of our demands' – the women's suffrage campaigns heat up, 1906–1914
Part IV. Anti-Climax
the Great War and its Aftermath
Quotations and introductory remarks
14. The Great War and the woman question
15. 'Half the human race'
epilogue and conclusion
Afterword
Appendix
important dates for the woman question debates
Index.