Feminism in France is the history of
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
thought and movements in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
. Feminism in France can be roughly divided into three waves:
First-wave feminism from the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
through the
Third Republic which was concerned chiefly with
suffrage
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in representative democracy, public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally i ...
and
civic rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life ...
for women. Significant contributions came from revolutionary movements of the
French Revolution of 1848
The French Revolution of 1848 (french: Révolution française de 1848), also known as the February Revolution (), was a brief period of civil unrest in France, in February 1848, that led to the collapse of the July Monarchy and the foundation ...
and
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune (french: Commune de Paris, ) was a revolutionary government that seized power in Paris, the capital of France, from 18 March to 28 May 1871.
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defended ...
, culminating in 1944 when women gained the right to vote.
Second-wave feminism
Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in the early 1960s and lasted roughly two decades. It took place throughout the Western world, and aimed to increase equality for women by building on previous feminist gains.
Wh ...
began in the 1940s as a reevaluation of women's role in society, reconciling the inferior treatment of women in society despite their ostensibly equal political status to men. Pioneered by theorists such as
Simone de Beauvoir
Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir (, ; ; 9 January 1908 – 14 April 1986) was a French existentialist philosopher, writer, social theorist, and feminist activist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, and even th ...
, second wave feminism was an important current within the social turmoil leading up to and following the
May 1968 events in France. Political goals included the guarantee of increased
bodily autonomy for women via increased access to
abortion
Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...
and
birth control
Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent unwanted pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth contr ...
.
Third-wave feminism
Third-wave feminism is an iteration of the feminist movement that began in the early 1990s, prominent in the decades prior to the fourth wave. Grounded in the civil-rights advances of the second wave, Gen X and early Gen Y generations third-wav ...
since the 2000s continues the legacy of the second wave while adding elements of
postcolonial feminism
Postcolonial feminism is a form of feminism that developed as a response to feminism focusing solely on the experiences of women in Western cultures and former colonies. Postcolonial feminism seeks to account for the way that racism and the long- ...
, approaching women's rights in tandem with other ongoing discourses, particularly those surrounding
racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
.
First-wave feminism
The French Revolution
In November 1789, at the very beginning of the French Revolution, the
Women's Petition was addressed to the National Assembly but not discussed. Although various
feminist movements
The feminist movement (also known as the women's movement, or feminism) refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for radical and liberal reforms on women's issues created by the inequality between men and women. Such i ...
emerged during the Revolution, most politicians followed
Rousseau's theories as outlined in ''
Emile'', which confined women to the roles of mother and spouse. The philosopher
Condorcet
Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis of Condorcet (; 17 September 1743 – 29 March 1794), known as Nicolas de Condorcet, was a French philosopher and mathematician. His ideas, including support for a liberal economy, free and equal pu ...
was a notable exception who advocated equal rights for both sexes.
The ''
Société fraternelle de l'un et l'autre sexe
The Fraternal Society of Patriots of Both Sexes, Defenders of the Constitution (french: link=no, La Société Fraternelle des Patriotes de l'un et l'autre sexe, Défenseurs de la Constitution) was a French revolutionary organization notable in the ...
'' ("Fraternal Society of Both Sexes") was founded in 1790 by
Claude Dansart Claude may refer to:
__NOTOC__ People and fictional characters
* Claude (given name), a list of people and fictional characters
* Claude (surname), a list of people
* Claude Lorrain (c. 1600–1682), French landscape painter, draughtsman and etcher ...
. It included prominent individuals such as
Etta Palm d'Aelders
Etta Lubina Johanna Palm d'Aelders (April 1743 – 28 March 1799), also known as the Baroness of Aelders, was a Dutch spy and feminist, outspoken during the French Revolution. She gave the address ''Discourse on the Injustice of the Laws in Fa ...
,
Jacques Hébert
Jacques René Hébert (; 15 November 1757 – 24 March 1794) was a French journalist and the founder and editor of the extreme radical newspaper ''Le Père Duchesne'' during the French Revolution.
Hébert was a leader of the French Revolution ...
,
Louise-Félicité de Kéralio
Louise-Félicité Guynement de Kéralio (25 Août 1758 in Valence, Drôme – 31 December 1821 in Brussels) was a French writer and translator, originating from the minor Breton nobility.
Her father was Louis-Félix Guynement de Kéralio, who ...
,
Pauline Léon
Pauline Léon (28 September 1768 – 5 October 1838) was an influential woman during the French Revolution. She played an important role in the Revolution, driven by her strong feminist and anti-royalist beliefs. Along with her friend Claire Lacomb ...
,
Théroigne de Méricourt
Anne-Josèphe Théroigne de Méricourt (born ''Anne-Josèphe Terwagne''; 13 August 1762 – 8 June 1817) was a Belgian singer, orator and organizer in the French Revolution. She was born at Marcourt, in Prince-Bishopric of Liège (from which com ...
,
Madame Roland,
Thérésa Cabarrús, and
Merlin de Thionville
Antoine Christophe Merlin (13 September 1762 in Thionville, Moselle (department), Moselle – September 1833 in Paris) was a member of several legislative bodies during the era of the French Revolution. He is usually called Merlin de Thionville ...
. The following year,
Olympe de Gouges
Olympe de Gouges (; born Marie Gouze; 7 May 17483 November 1793) was a French playwright and political activist whose writings on women's rights and abolitionism reached a large audience in various countries. She began her career as a playwright ...
published the
Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen
The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen (french: Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne), also known as the Declaration of the Rights of Woman, was written on 14 September 1791 by French activist, femini ...
. This was a letter addressed to Queen
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne (; ; née Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child a ...
which requested actions in favour of
women's rights
Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...
. Gouges was
guillotined two years later, days after the execution of the
Girondin
The Girondins ( , ), or Girondists, were members of a loosely knit political faction during the French Revolution. From 1791 to 1793, the Girondins were active in the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention. Together with the Montagnard ...
s.
In February 1793, Pauline Léon and
Claire Lacombe
Claire Lacombe (4 August 1765-2 May 1826) was a French actress and revolutionary. She is best known for her contributions during the French Revolution. Though it was only for a few years, Lacombe was a revolutionary and a founding member of the S ...
created the exclusively-female ''
Société des républicaines révolutionnaires
The Society of Revolutionary and Republican Women (''Société des Citoyennes Républicaines Révolutionnaires'', ''Société des républicaines révolutionnaires'') was a female-led revolutionary organization during the French Revolution. The Soc ...
'' (Society of Revolutionary Republicans—the final ''e'' in ''républicaines'' explicitly denoting Republican Women), which boasted two hundred members. Viewed by the historian
Daniel Guérin
Daniel Guérin (; 19 May 1904, in Paris – 14 April 1988, in Suresnes) was a French libertarian-communist author, best known for his work '' Anarchism: From Theory to Practice'', as well as his collection ''No Gods No Masters: An Anthology of ...
as a sort of "feminist section of the ''
Enragés
The ''Enragés'' (French for "enraged ones") commonly known as the Ultra-radicals (french: Ultra-radicaux) were a small number of firebrands known for defending the lower class and expressing the demands of the extreme radical sans-culottes durin ...
''", they participated in the fall of the Girondins. Lacombe advocated giving weapons to women. However, the Society was outlawed by the revolutionary government in the following year.
From the Restoration to the Second Republic
The feminist movement expanded again in
Socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
movements of the
Romantic
Romantic may refer to:
Genres and eras
* The Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement of the 18th and 19th centuries
** Romantic music, of that era
** Romantic poetry, of that era
** Romanticism in science, of that e ...
generation, in particular among
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
ian
Saint Simonians. Women freely adopted new lifestyles, inciting indignation in
public opinion. They claimed equality of rights and participated in the
abundant literary activity, such as
Claire Démar
Claire Démar (1799–1833), was a feminist, journalist and writer, member of the Saint-Simonian movement. The avant-garde nature of her writings has led to her current recognition.
Her biography remains obscure. Her name according to some so ...
's ''Appel au peuple sur l'affranchissement de la femme'' (1833), a feminist
pamphlet
A pamphlet is an unbound book (that is, without a hard cover or binding). Pamphlets may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths, called a ''leaflet'' or it may consist of a ...
. On the other hand,
Charles Fourier
François Marie Charles Fourier (;; 7 April 1772 – 10 October 1837) was a French philosopher, an influential early socialist thinker and one of the founders of utopian socialism. Some of Fourier's social and moral views, held to be radical in ...
's
Utopian Socialist theory of passions advocated "
free love." His architectural model of the ''
phalanstery'' community explicitly took into account women's emancipation.
The
Bourbon Restoration Bourbon Restoration may refer to:
France under the House of Bourbon:
* Bourbon Restoration in France (1814, after the French revolution and Napoleonic era, until 1830; interrupted by the Hundred Days in 1815)
Spain under the Spanish Bourbons:
* ...
re-established the prohibition of
divorce
Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...
in 1816. When the
July Monarchy
The July Monarchy (french: Monarchie de Juillet), officially the Kingdom of France (french: Royaume de France), was a liberal constitutional monarchy in France under , starting on 26 July 1830, with the July Revolution of 1830, and ending 23 F ...
restricted the political rights of the majority of the population, the feminist struggle rejoined the Republican and Socialist struggle for a "Democratic and Social Republic," leading to the
1848 Revolution
The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime of the Peoples or the Springtime of Nations, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe starting in 1848. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in Europea ...
and the proclamation of the
Second Republic. The 1848 Revolution became the occasion of a public expression of the feminist movement, who organized itself in various associations. Women's political activities led several of them to be proscribed as the other
Forty-Eighters
The Forty-Eighters were Europeans who participated in or supported the Revolutions of 1848 that swept Europe. In the German Confederation, the Forty-Eighters favoured unification of Germany, a more democratic government, and guarantees of human r ...
.
Belle Époque Era
During the culturally thriving times of the
Belle Époque
The Belle Époque or La Belle Époque (; French for "Beautiful Epoch") is a period of French and European history, usually considered to begin around 1871–1880 and to end with the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Occurring during the era ...
, especially in the late nineteenth century, feminism and the view of femininity experienced substantial shifts evident through acts by women of boldness and rejection of previous stigmas.
The most defining characteristic of this period shown by these actions is the power of choice women began to take hold of. Such acts included these women partaking in nonstandard ways of marriage—as divorce during this time had been legally reinstalled as a result of the Naquet Laws
—practicing gender role-defying jobs, and profoundly influencing societal ideologies regarding femininity through writings.
Feminist newspapers quickly became more widespread and took a role in transforming both the view of women and their rights.
As this era held promise of equality, proceeding after the French Revolution, women still had yet to gain the title of equal citizens, making it a difficult and dangerous venture to publicize opinions promoting the advancement of women's rights. Among these newspapers, the most notable is Marguerite Durand's ''
La Fronde
The Fronde () was a series of civil wars in France between 1648 and 1653, occurring in the midst of the Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659), Franco-Spanish War, which had begun in 1635. King Louis XIV confronted the combined opposition of the pr ...
'', run entirely by women.
The Commune and the ''Union des Femmes''
Some women organized a feminist movement during the Commune, following up on earlier attempts in 1789 and 1848.
Nathalie Lemel
Nathalie Lemel (26 August 1827 – 1921), was a militant anarchist and feminist who participated on the barricades at the Commune de Paris of 1871. She was deported to Nouvelle Calédonie with Louise Michel.
Bookbinder
Nathalie Lemel was born in B ...
, a socialist bookbinder, and
Élisabeth Dmitrieff, a young Russian exile and member of the Russian section of the
First International (IWA), created the ''
'' ("Women's Union for the Defense of Paris and Care of the Injured") on 11 April 1871. The feminist writer
André Léo
André — sometimes transliterated as Andre — is the French and Portuguese form of the name Andrew, and is now also used in the English-speaking world. It used in France, Quebec, Canada and other French-speaking countries. It is a variation o ...
, a friend of
Paule Minck
Paule Mink (born Adèle Paulina Mekarska; 1839–1901) was a French feminist and socialist revolutionary of Polish descent. She participated in the Paris Commune and in the First International. Her pseudonym is also sometimes spelled Minck.
Early ...
, was also active in the Women's Union. The association demanded
gender equality
Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making; and the state of valuing d ...
, wage equality, right of
divorce
Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...
for women, and right to
secular and professional education for girls. They also demanded suppression of the distinction between married women and
concubine
Concubinage is an interpersonal and sexual relationship between a man and a woman in which the couple does not want, or cannot enter into a full marriage. Concubinage and marriage are often regarded as similar but mutually exclusive.
Concubi ...
s, between legitimate and natural children, the abolition of
prostitution
Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in Sex work, sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, n ...
in closing the ''maisons de tolérance'', or legal official
brothel
A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub par ...
s.
The Women's Union also participated in several municipal commissions and organized cooperative workshops. Along with
Eugène Varlin
Eugène Varlin (; 5 October 1839 – 28 May 1871) was a French socialist, anarchist, communard and member of the First International. He was one of the pioneers of French syndicalism.
Biography Early life and activism
Louis-Eugène Varlin was bo ...
, Nathalie Le Mel created the
cooperative
A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...
restaurant ''La Marmite'', which served free food for indigents, and then fought during the Bloody Week on the barricades
[François Bodinaux, Dominique Plasman, Michèle Ribourdouille. "]
On les disait 'pétroleuses'...
''" On the other hand, Paule Minck opened a free school in the
Church of Saint Pierre de Montmartre, and animated the
Club Saint-Sulpice
Club may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Club'' (magazine)
* Club, a ''Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character
* Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards
* Club music
* "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea''
Brands and enterprises
...
on the Left Bank.
[ The Russian Anne Jaclard, who declined to marry ]Dostoievsky
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 ...
and finally became the wife of Blanquist
Blanquism refers to a conception of revolution generally attributed to Louis Auguste Blanqui (1805–1881) which holds that socialist revolution should be carried out by a relatively small group of highly organised and secretive conspirators. Havi ...
activist Victor Jaclard, founded with André Léo the newspaper '' La Sociale''. She was also a member of the '' Comité de vigilance de Montmartre'', along with Louise Michel and Paule Minck, as well as of the Russian section of the First International. Victorine Brocher
Victorine Brocher (1839–1921) was a Communard and anarchist. She participated in the Paris Commune and later wrote a memoir detailing her experience. Brocher was a delegate to the 1881 London Anarchist Congress and a contributor to anarchist ...
, close to the IWA activists and founder of a cooperative bakery in 1867, also fought during the Commune and the Bloody Week.[
Famous figures such as Louise Michel, the "Red Virgin of Montmartre" who joined the National Guard and would later be sent to ]New Caledonia
)
, anthem = ""
, image_map = New Caledonia on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg
, map_alt = Location of New Caledonia
, map_caption = Location of New Caledonia
, mapsize = 290px
, subdivision_type = Sovereign st ...
, symbolize the active participation of a small number of women in the insurrectionary events. A female battalion from the National Guard defended the Place Blanche Place Blanche in Paris, France is one of the small plazas along the Boulevard de Clichy, which runs between the 9th and 18th arrondissements (Parisian districts) and leads into Montmartre. It is near Pigalle.
On 23 May 1871, during the Bloody We ...
during the repression.
The ''suffragettes''
In 1909, French noblewoman and feminist Jeanne-Elizabeth Schmahl
Jeanne Elizabeth Schmahl (née Archer; 1846–1915) was a French feminism, feminist, born in Britain. She married a well-off husband who supported her while she worked as a midwife's assistant in Paris. She decided to avoid politics and religion ...
founded the French Union for Women's Suffrage
The French Union for Women's Suffrage (UFSF: french: italic=no, Union française pour le suffrage des femmes) was a French feminist organization formed in 1909 that fought for the right of women to vote, which was eventually granted in 1945. The Un ...
to advocate for women's right to vote
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...
in France.
Despite some cultural changes following World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, which had resulted in women replacing the male workers who had gone to the front, they were known as the ''Années folles
The ''Années folles'' (, "crazy years" in French) was the decade of the 1920s in France. It was coined to describe the rich social, artistic, and cultural collaborations of the period. The same period is also referred to as the Roaring Twen ...
'' and their exuberance was restricted to a very small group of female elites. Victor Margueritte
Victor Margueritte (1 December 186623 March 1942) was a French novelist. He was the younger brother of Paul Margueritte (1860–1918).
Life
He and his brother were born in Algeria. They were the sons of General Jean Auguste Margueritte (1 ...
's '' La Garçonne'' (The Flapper, 1922), depicting an emancipated woman, was seen as scandalous and caused him to lose his ''Légion d'honneur
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...
''.
During the Third Republic, the ''suffragettes
A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...
'' movement championed the right to vote
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...
for women, but did not insist on the access of women to legislative and executive offices.[Christine Bard]
Les premières femmes au Gouvernement (France, 1936-1981)
'' Histoire@Politique'', n°1, May–June 2007 The ''suffragettes'', however, did honour the achievements of foreign women in power by bringing attention to legislation passed under their influence concerning alcohol (such as Prohibition in the United States
In the United States from 1920 to 1933, a Constitution of the United States, nationwide constitutional law prohibition, prohibited the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. The alcohol industry was curtai ...
), regulation of prostitution
Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in Sex work, sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, n ...
, and protection of children's rights
Children's rights are a subset of human rights with particular attention to the rights of special protection and care afforded to minors. .[
Despite this campaign and the new role of women following World War I, the Third Republic declined to grant them voting rights, mainly because of fear of the influence of clericalism among them,][ echoing the conservative vote of rural areas for Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte during the Second Republic. After the 1936 Popular Front victory, although he had defended voting rights for women (a proposition included in the program of the ]French Section of the Workers' International
The French Section of the Workers' International (french: Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière, SFIO) was a political party in France that was founded in 1905 and succeeded in 1969 by the modern-day Socialist Party. The SFIO was found ...
party since 1906), left-wing Prime Minister Léon Blum
André Léon Blum (; 9 April 1872 – 30 March 1950) was a French socialist politician and three-time Prime Minister.
As a Jew, he was heavily influenced by the Dreyfus affair of the late 19th century. He was a disciple of French Socialist le ...
did not implement the measure, because of the fear of the Radical-Socialist Party.[
Women obtained the ]right to vote
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...
only after the Provisional Government of the French Republic
The Provisional Government of the French Republic (PGFR; french: Gouvernement provisoire de la République française (''GPRF'')) was the provisional government of Free France between 3 June 1944 and 27 October 1946, following the liberation ...
(GPRF) confirmed, on 5 October 1944, the ordinance
Ordinance may refer to:
Law
* Ordinance (Belgium), a law adopted by the Brussels Parliament or the Common Community Commission
* Ordinance (India), a temporary law promulgated by the President of India on recommendation of the Union Cabinet
* ...
of 21 April 1944 of the French Committee of National Liberation
The French Committee of National Liberation (french: Comité français de Libération nationale) was a provisional government of Free France formed by the French generals Henri Giraud and Charles de Gaulle to provide united leadership, organiz ...
.[ Following the November 1946 elections, the first in which women were permitted to vote, sociologist Robert Verdier refuted any ]voting gender gap
A gender gap in voting typically refers to the difference in the percentage of men and women who vote for a particular candidate.Center for American Women and Politics, Rutgers University, The Gender Gap, Voting Choices in Presidential Elections It ...
: in May 1947 in '' Le Populaire'', he showed that women do not vote in a consistent way but divide themselves, as men, according to social classes.[
]
Other rights for women
Olga Petit
Olga Petit or Sophie Balachowsky-Petit (16 March 1870 – 1966) was a Russian-born, French lawyer. She is noted as the first woman to take the legal oath in France. She is also known for assisting Russian emigres settling in the country after the ...
, born Scheina Lea-Balachowsky and also referred to as Sonia Olga Balachowsky-Petit, became the first female lawyer
A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...
in France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
on 6 December 1900.
Marital power
In civil law jurisdictions, marital power ( la, potestas maritalis, nl, maritale macht, af, maritale mag) was a doctrine in terms of which a wife was legally an '' incapax'' under the usufructory tutorship (''tutela usufructuaria'') of her husb ...
(puissance maritale) was abolished in 1938. However, the legal repeal of the specific doctrine of ''marital power'' does not necessarily grant married women the same legal rights as their husbands (or as unmarried women) as was notably the case in France, where the legal subordination of the wife (primarily coming from the Napoleonic Code) was gradually abolished with women obtaining full equality in marriage only in the 1980s.
Second-wave feminism
Post-war period
Women were not allowed to become judges in France until 1946.
During the baby boom
A baby boom is a period marked by a significant increase of birth rate. This demographic phenomenon is usually ascribed within certain geographical bounds of defined national and cultural populations. People born during these periods are often ca ...
period, feminism became a minor movement, despite forerunners such as Simone de Beauvoir
Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir (, ; ; 9 January 1908 – 14 April 1986) was a French existentialist philosopher, writer, social theorist, and feminist activist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, and even th ...
, who published '' The Second Sex'' in 1949.[
''The Second Sex'' is a detailed analysis of women's oppression and a foundational tract of contemporary feminism. It sets out a ]feminist existentialism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights for women. Existentialism is a philosophical and cultural movement which holds that the starting point of philosoph ...
which prescribes a moral revolution. As an existentialist, de Beauvoir accepted Jean-Paul Sartre's precept that ''existence precedes essence
The proposition that existence precedes essence (french: l'existence précède l'essence) is a central claim of existentialism, which reverses the traditional philosophical view that the essence (the nature) of a thing is more fundamental and im ...
''; hence "one is not born a woman, but becomes one". Her analysis focuses on the social construction of Woman as the Other
In phenomenology, the terms the Other and the Constitutive Other identify the other human being, in their differences from the Self, as being a cumulative, constituting factor in the self-image of a person; as acknowledgement of being real; he ...
, this de Beauvoir identifies as fundamental to women's oppression. She argues that women have historically been considered deviant and abnormal, and contends that even Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft (, ; 27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was a British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. Until the late 20th century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationsh ...
considered men to be the ideal toward which women should aspire. De Beauvoir argues that for feminism to move forward, this attitude must be set aside.[
Married French women obtained the right to work without their husband's consent in 1965. The ]Neuwirth Law The Neuwirth Law is a French law which lifted the ban on birth control methods on December 28, 1967, including oral contraception. It was passed by the National Assembly on December 19, 1967. The law is named after Lucien Neuwirth, the Gaullist po ...
legalized birth control in 1967, but the relative executive decrees were blocked for a couple years by the conservative government.
May 1968 and its aftermath
A strong feminist movement would only emerge in the aftermath of May 1968, with the creation of the '' Mouvement de libération des femmes'' (Women's Liberation Movement, MLF), allegedly by Antoinette Fouque
Antoinette Fouque (née Antoinette Grugnardi; 1 October 1936 – 20 February 2014) was a French psychoanalyst who was involved in the French women's liberation movement. She was the leader of one of the groups that originally formed the French Wome ...
, Monique Wittig
Monique Wittig (; July 13, 1935 – January 3, 2003) was a French author, philosopher and feminist theorist who wrote about abolition of the sex-class system and coined the phrase "heterosexual contract". Her seminal work is titled ''The Straigh ...
and Josiane Chanel in 1968. The name itself was given by the press, in reference to the US Women's Lib
The women's liberation movement (WLM) was a political alignment of women and feminist intellectualism that emerged in the late 1960s and continued into the 1980s primarily in the industrialized nations of the Western world, which effected great ...
movement. In the frame of the cultural and social changes that occurred during the Fifth Republic, they advocated the right of autonomy from their husbands, and the rights to contraception
Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent unwanted pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth contr ...
and to abortion
Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...
.
The paternal authority of a man over his family in France was ended in 1970 (before that parental responsibilities belonged solely to the father who made all legal decisions concerning the children).[http://ceflonline.net/wp-content/uploads/France-Parental-Responsibilities.pdf ]
From 1970, the procedures for the use of the title "Mademoiselle
Mademoiselle (abbreviated as ''Mlle'' or ''M'') may refer to:
* Mademoiselle (title), the French-language equivalent of the title "miss"
Film and television
* ''Mademoiselle'' (1966 film), a French-British drama directed by Tony Richardson
* '' ...
" were challenged in France, particularly by feminist groups who wanted it banned. A circular from François Fillon, then Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
, dated 21 February 2012, called for the deletion of the word "Mademoiselle" in all official documents. On 26 December 2012, the Council of State approved the deletion.
In 1971, the feminist lawyer Gisèle Halimi
Gisèle Halimi (born Zeiza Gisèle Élise Taïeb; 27 July 1927 – 28 July 2020) was a Tunisian-French lawyer, politician, essayist and Feminism in France, feminist activist.
Biography
Zeiza Gisèle Élise Taïeb was born in La Goulette, Tunisi ...
founded the group ''Choisir'' ("To Choose"), to protect the women who had signed
"Le Manifeste des 343 Salopes"
(in English "Manifesto of the 343 Sluts
The Manifesto of the 343 (), was a French petition signed by 343 women "who had the courage to say, 'I've had an abortion. It was an act of civil disobedience, since abortion was illegal in France, and by admitting publicly to having aborted, they ...
" or alternately "Manifesto of the 343 Bitches"), written by Simone de Beauvoir
Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir (, ; ; 9 January 1908 – 14 April 1986) was a French existentialist philosopher, writer, social theorist, and feminist activist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, and even th ...
. This provocative title became popular after Cabu's drawing on a satirical journal with the caption: ''« Who got those 343 whores pregnant? »''); the women were admitting to have had illegal abortions, and therefore exposing themselves to judicial actions and prison sentences. The Manifesto had been published in '' Le Nouvel Observateur'' on 5 April 1971. The Manifesto was the inspiration for a February 3, 1973, manifesto by 331 doctors declaring their support for abortion rights:
We want freedom of abortion. It is entirely the woman's decision. We reject any entity that forces her to defend herself, perpetuates an atmosphere of guilt, and allows underground abortions to persist ....
''Choisir'' had transformed into a clearly reformist body in 1972, and their campaign greatly influenced the passing of the law allowing contraception and abortion carried through by Simone Veil in 1975. The Veil Act was at the time hotly contested by Veil's own party, the conservative Union for French Democracy
The Union for French Democracy (french: Union pour la démocratie française, UDF) was a centre to centre-right political party in France. It was founded in 1978 as an electoral alliance to support President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in order to c ...
(UDF).
In 1974, Françoise d'Eaubonne coined the term "ecofeminism
Ecofeminism is a branch of feminism and political ecology. Ecofeminist thinkers draw on the concept of gender to analyse the relationships between humans and the natural world. The term was coined by the French writer Françoise d'Eaubonne in h ...
."
In the 1970s, French feminist theorists approached feminism with the concept of ''écriture féminine
''Écriture féminine,'' or "women's writing", is a term coined by French feminist and literary theorist Hélène Cixous in her 1975 essay "The Laugh of the Medusa". Cixous aimed to establish a genre of literary writing that deviates from tradi ...
'' (which translates as female, or feminine writing).[Wright, Elizabeth (2000). ''Lacan and Postfeminism (Postmodern Encounters)''. Totem Books or Icon Books. .] Hélène Cixous argues that writing and philosophy are ''phallocentric Phallocentrism is the ideology that the phallus, or male sexual organ, is the central element in the organization of the social world. Phallocentrism has been analyzed in literary criticism, psychoanalysis and psychology, linguistics, medicine and h ...
'' and along with other French feminists such as Luce Irigaray
Luce Irigaray (born 3 May 1930) is a Belgian-born French feminist, philosopher, linguist, psycholinguist, psychoanalyst, and cultural theorist who examined the uses and misuses of language in relation to women. Irigaray's first and most well know ...
emphasize "writing from the body" as a subversive exercise.[ The work of the feminist psychoanalyst and philosopher, ]Julia Kristeva
Julia Kristeva (; born Yuliya Stoyanova Krasteva, bg, Юлия Стоянова Кръстева; on 24 June 1941) is a Bulgarian-French philosopher, literary critic, semiotician, psychoanalyst, feminist, and, most recently, novelist, who has ...
, has influenced feminist theory in general and feminist literary criticism
Feminist literary criticism is literary criticism informed by feminist theory, or more broadly, by the politics of feminism. It uses the principles and ideology of feminism to critique the language of literature. This school of thought seeks to an ...
in particular. From the 1980s onwards the work of the artist and psychoanalyst Bracha Ettinger
Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger (born March 23, 1948) is an Israeli people, Israeli artist, painter and writer, visual analyst, psychoanalyst and philosopher, living and working in Paris and Tel Aviv. She is regarded as a major French people, French ...
has influenced literary criticism, art history and film theory.
A new reform in France in 1985 abolished the stipulation that the father had the sole power to administer the children's property.
In 1999, Florence Montreynaud
Florence Montreynaud (born ) is a French feminist.
Biography
Montreynaud was born in 1948. Her mother was a painter and her father was an engineer. She currently lives in Paris, and previously lived in the department of Oise. In 1970 she ga ...
launched the '' Chiennes de garde'' NGO.
French feminist theory
In the English-speaking world, the term "French feminism" refers to a branch of theories and philosophies by and about women that emerged in the 1970s to the 1990s. These ideas have run parallel to and sometimes in contradistinction to the political feminist movement in France but is often referred to as "French feminist theory," distinguished by an approach which is more philosophical and literary. Its writings tend to be effusive and metaphorical being less concerned with political doctrine and generally focused on theories of "the body".
Notable representatives include Monique Wittig
Monique Wittig (; July 13, 1935 – January 3, 2003) was a French author, philosopher and feminist theorist who wrote about abolition of the sex-class system and coined the phrase "heterosexual contract". Her seminal work is titled ''The Straigh ...
Hélène Cixous,[Kelly Ives, ''Cixous, Irigaray, Kristeva: The Jouissance of French Feminism'', Crescent Moon Publishing, 2016.] Luce Irigaray
Luce Irigaray (born 3 May 1930) is a Belgian-born French feminist, philosopher, linguist, psycholinguist, psychoanalyst, and cultural theorist who examined the uses and misuses of language in relation to women. Irigaray's first and most well know ...
,[ ]Julia Kristeva
Julia Kristeva (; born Yuliya Stoyanova Krasteva, bg, Юлия Стоянова Кръстева; on 24 June 1941) is a Bulgarian-French philosopher, literary critic, semiotician, psychoanalyst, feminist, and, most recently, novelist, who has ...
[ and ]Bracha Ettinger
Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger (born March 23, 1948) is an Israeli people, Israeli artist, painter and writer, visual analyst, psychoanalyst and philosopher, living and working in Paris and Tel Aviv. She is regarded as a major French people, French ...
.
The term includes writers who are not French, but who have worked substantially in France and the French tradition.
Third-wave feminism
In the 2000s, some feminist groups such as ''Ni putes, ni soumises
Ni Putes Ni Soumises (which roughly translates as ''Neither Whores nor Submissives'') is a French feminist movement, founded in 2002, which has secured the recognition of the French news, press and the National Assembly of France. It is generall ...
'' (Neither Whores, Nor Submissives) denounced an increased influence of Islamic extremism
Islamic extremism, Islamist extremism, or radical Islam, is used in reference to extremist beliefs and behaviors which are associated with the Islamic religion. These are controversial terms with varying definitions, ranging from academic unde ...
in poor suburbs of large immigrant population, claiming they may be pressured into wearing veils
A veil is an article of clothing or hanging cloth that is intended to cover some part of the head or face, or an object of some significance. Veiling has a long history in European, Asian, and African societies. The practice has been prominent ...
, leaving school, and marrying early. On the other hand, a " third wave" of the feminist movement arose, combining the issues of sexism and racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
, protesting the perceived Islamophobic instrumentalization of feminism by the French Right.
After ''Ni Putes Ni Soumises'' activists were received by Prime Minister Jean Pierre Raffarin and their message incorporated into the official celebrations of Bastille Day 2003 in Paris, various left-wing
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
authors (Sylvie Tissot,[Sylvie Tissot]
Bilan d’un féminisme d’État
in ''Plein Droit'' n°75, December 2007 Elsa Dorlin,[Elsa Dorlin (professor of philosophy at the Sorbonne, member of NextGenderation)]
"Pas en notre nom !" - Contre la récupération raciste du féminisme par la droite française
(Not in our names! Against the Racist Recuperation of Feminism by the French Right), ''L'Autre Campagne'' Étienne Balibar
Étienne Balibar (; ; born 23 April 1942) is a French philosopher. He has taught at the University of Paris X-Nanterre, at the University of California Irvine and is currently an Anniversary Chair Professor at the Centre for Research in Modern Eu ...
,Étienne Balibar
Étienne Balibar (; ; born 23 April 1942) is a French philosopher. He has taught at the University of Paris X-Nanterre, at the University of California Irvine and is currently an Anniversary Chair Professor at the Centre for Research in Modern Eu ...
Uprising in the "banlieues"
Conference at the University of Chicago, 10 May 2006 (published in French in ''Lignes'', November 2006) Houria Bouteldja,[Houria Bouteldja]
De la cérémonie du dévoilement à Alger (1958) à Ni Putes Ni Soumises: l’instrumentalisation coloniale et néo-coloniale de la cause des femmes., Ni putes ni soumises, un appareil idéologique d’État
June 2007 etc.) as well as NGOs such as ''Les Blédardes'' (led by Bouteldja), criticized the racist
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
stigmatization of immigrant populations, whose cultures are depicted as inherently sexist.
They underline that sexism is not a specificity of immigrant populations, as if French culture itself were devoid of sexism, and that the focus on media-friendly and violent acts (such as the burning of Sohane Benziane) silences the precarization of women. They frame the debate among the French Left
The Left in France (french: gauche française) was represented at the beginning of the 20th century by two main political parties, namely the Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party and the French Section of the Workers' Internatio ...
concerning the 2004 law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools, mainly targeted against the ''hijab
In modern usage, hijab ( ar, حجاب, translit=ḥijāb, ) generally refers to headcoverings worn by Muslim women. Many Muslims believe it is obligatory for every female Muslim who has reached the age of puberty to wear a head covering. While ...
'', under this light.[
They claimed that ''Ni Putes Ni Soumises'' overshadowed the work of other feminist NGOs. After the nomination of its leader ]Fadela Amara
Fadela Amara (born Fatiha Amara on 25 April 1964) is a French feminism, French feminist and politician, who began her political life as an advocate for women in the impoverished ''banlieues''. She was the Secretary of State for Urban Policies in ...
to the government by Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012.
Born in Paris, he is of Hungarian, Greek Jewish, and French origin. Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Se ...
, Sylvie Tissot denounced a "state feminism"[ (an instrumentalization of feminism by state authorities) while Bouteldja qualified the NGO as an ]Ideological State Apparatus
"Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes Towards an Investigation)" (French: "Idéologie et appareils idéologiques d'État (Notes pour une recherche)") is an essay by the French Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser. First published in 197 ...
(AIE).[
In January 2007, the collective of the ''Féministes indigènes'' launched a manifesto in honour of the Mulatress Solitude. The Mulatress Solitude was a heroine who fought with ]Louis Delgrès
Louis Delgrès (2 August 1766 – 28 May 1802) was a leader of the movement in Guadeloupe resisting reoccupation and thus the reinstitution of slavery by Napoleonic France in 1802.
Biography
Delgrès was mulatto, born free in Saint-Pierre, M ...
against the re-establishment of slavery (abolished during the French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
) by Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
. The manifesto stated that "Western Feminism did not have the monopoly of resistance against masculine domination" and supported a mild form of separatism
Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, governmental or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seeking greate ...
, refusing to allow others (males or whites) to speak in their names.
Difficult access to government office for women
A few women held public office in the 1930s, although they kept a low profile. In 1936, the new Prime Minister, Léon Blum
André Léon Blum (; 9 April 1872 – 30 March 1950) was a French socialist politician and three-time Prime Minister.
As a Jew, he was heavily influenced by the Dreyfus affair of the late 19th century. He was a disciple of French Socialist le ...
, included three women in the Popular Front government: Cécile Brunschvicg
Cécile Brunschvicg (), born Cécile Kahn (19 July 1877 in Enghien-les-Bains – 5 October 1946 in Neuilly-sur-Seine), was a French feminist politician. From the 1920s until her death she was regarded as "the ''grande dame'' of the feminist mov ...
, Suzanne Lacore
Suzanne Lacore was a French politician representing the SFIO (French Section of the Workers' International). She was born on 30 May 1875 in Beyssac (Corrèze, France); she died on 6 November 1975 in Milhac d'Auberoche (Dordogne, France).
Child ...
and Irène Joliot-Curie.[ The inclusion of women in the Popular Front government was unanimously appreciated: even the far-right candidate Xavier Vallat addressed his "congratulations" to Blum for this measure while the conservative newspaper '']Le Temps
''Le Temps'' (literally "The Time") is a Swiss French-language daily newspaper published in Berliner format in Geneva by Le Temps SA. It is the sole nationwide French-language non-specialised daily newspaper of Switzerland. Since 2021, it has b ...
'' wrote, on 1 June 1936, that women could be ministers without previous authorizations from their husbands. Cécile Brunschvicg and Irène Joliot-Curie were both legally "under-age" as women.
Wars (both World War I and World War II) had seen the provisional emancipation of some, individual, women, but post-war periods signalled the return to conservative roles.[ For instance, ]Lucie Aubrac
Lucie Samuel (29 June 1912 – 14 March 2007), born Lucie Bernard, and better known as Lucie Aubrac (), was a French history teacher and member of the French Resistance during World War II. In 1938, she earned an agrégation of history (somethi ...
, who was active in the French Resistance
The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...
—a role highlighted by Gaullist myths—returned to private life after the war.[ Thirty-three women were elected at the Liberation, but none entered the government, and the euphoria of the Liberation was quickly halted.][
Women retained a low profile during the Fourth and Fifth Republic. In 1949, Jeanne-Paule Sicard was the first female chief of staff, but was called "Mr. ]Pleven
Pleven ( bg, Плèвен ) is the seventh most populous city in Bulgaria. Located in the northern part of the country, it is the administrative centre of Pleven Province, as well as of the subordinate Pleven municipality. It is the biggest ...
's (then Minister of Defence) secretary." Marie-France Garaud
Marie-France Garaud (born 3 March 1934) is a French politician.
She was a private advisor for President Pompidou and Jacques Chirac during his first time as Prime Minister. In the 1970s, she was considered to be the most influential woman of Fr ...
, who entered Jean Foyer
Jean Foyer (21 April 1921, Contigné, Maine-et-Loire – 3 October 2008, Paris) was a French politician and minister. He studied law and became a law professor at the university. He wrote several books about French Civil law.
Political care ...
's office at the Ministry of Cooperation and would later become President Georges Pompidou's main counsellor, along with Pierre Juillet
Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...
, was given the same title. The leftist newspaper ''Libération
''Libération'' (), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Initially positioned on the far-left of France's ...
'', founded in 1973 by Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and litera ...
, would depict Marie-France Garaud as yet another figure of female spin-doctors. However, the new role granted to the President of the Republic in the semi-presidential regime
A semi-presidential republic, is a republic in which a president exists alongside a prime minister and a cabinet, with the latter two being responsible to the legislature of the state. It differs from a parliamentary republic in that it has a ...
of the Fifth Republic after the 1962 referendum on the election of the President at direct universal suffrage, led to a greater role of the "First Lady of France". Although Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...
's wife Yvonne remained out of the public sphere, the image of Claude Pompidou would interest the media more and more.[ The media frenzy surrounding ]Cécilia Sarkozy
"Cecilia" is a song by American musical duo Simon & Garfunkel. It was released in April 1970 as the third single from the group's fifth studio album, '' Bridge over Troubled Water'' (1970). Written by Paul Simon, the song's origins lie in a l ...
, former wife of the former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012.
Born in Paris, he is of Hungarian, Greek Jewish, and French origin. Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Se ...
, would mark the culmination of this current.
1945–1974
Of the 27 cabinets formed during the Fourth Republic, only four included women, and never more than one at a time. SFIO member Andrée Viénot
Andrée Viénot (7 June 1901 – 20 October 1976) was a French politician.
Biography
Andrée Viénot was born as Andrée Mayrisch on 7 June 1901 in Dudelange. She studied political economy in London School of Economics. In 18 July 1929 she ...
, widow of a Resistant, was nominated in June 1946 by the Christian democrat Georges Bidault
Georges-Augustin Bidault (; 5 October 189927 January 1983) was a French politician. During World War II, he was active in the French Resistance. After the war, he served as foreign minister and prime minister on several occasions. He joined the ...
of the Popular Republican Movement as undersecretary
Undersecretary (or under secretary) is a title for a person who works for and has a lower rank than a secretary (person in charge). It is used in the executive branch of government, with different meanings in different political systems, and is al ...
of Youth and Sports. However, she remained in office for only seven months. The next woman to hold government office, Germaine Poinso-Chapuis
Germaine Poinso-Chapuis (6 March 1901, Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône – 20 February 1981) was a French politician. She was the first woman to hold a Cabinet-level post in the French government. Her political convictions have been characterized ...
, was health and education minister from 24 November 1947 to 19 July 1948 in Robert Schuman
Jean-Baptiste Nicolas Robert Schuman (; 29 June 18864 September 1963) was a Luxembourg-born French statesman. Schuman was a Christian Democrat (Popular Republican Movement) political thinker and activist. Twice Prime Minister of France, a ref ...
's cabinet. Remaining one year in office, her name remained attached to a decree
A decree is a legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state (such as the president of a republic or a monarch), according to certain procedures (usually established in a constitution). It has the force of law. The particular term used for ...
financing private education
An independent school is independent in its finances and governance. Also known as private schools, non-governmental, privately funded, or non-state schools, they are not administered by local, state or national governments. In British Eng ...
. Published in the ''Journal officiel
A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to:
*Bullet journal, a method of personal organization
*Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period
*Daybook, also known as a general journal, a ...
'' on 22 May 1948 with her signature, the decree had been drafted in her absence at the Council of Ministers of France. The Communist and the Radical-Socialist Party called for the repealing of the decree, and finally, Schuman's cabinet was overturned after failing a confidence motion
A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or mana ...
on the subject. Germaine Poinso-Chapuis
Germaine Poinso-Chapuis (6 March 1901, Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône – 20 February 1981) was a French politician. She was the first woman to hold a Cabinet-level post in the French government. Her political convictions have been characterized ...
did not pursue her political career, encouraged to abandon it by Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...
.[
The third woman to hold government office would be the Radical-Socialist Jacqueline Thome-Patenôtre, appointed undersecretary of Reconstruction and Lodging in ]Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury
Maurice Jean Marie Bourgès-Maunoury (; 19 August 1914 – 10 February 1993) was a French Radical politician who served as the Prime Minister in the Fourth Republic during 1957.
Bourgès-Maunoury was born in Luisant, Eure-et-Loir. He is famo ...
's cabinet in 1957. Nafissa Sid Cara
Nafissa Sid-Cara or Nafissa Sidkara. (18 April 1910, in El Eulma, Algeria - 1 January 2002, Paris, France) was a French politician. Sid-Cara was the first female minister to serve in the French Fifth Republic as well as the first ever Algerian ori ...
then participated in the government as undersecretary in charge of Algeria
)
, image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Algiers
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, relig ...
from 1959 till the end of the war in 1962. Marie-Madeleine Dienesch
Marie-Madeleine Dienesch (1914–1998) was a French politician who served as a member of the National Assembly of France and a Member of the European Parliament over a period of 35 years. She was the second woman to be a French minister.
Life
Bo ...
, who evolved from Christian-Democracy to Gaullism (in 1966), occupied various offices as undersecretary between 1968 and 1974. Finally, Suzanne Ploux
Suzanne may refer to:
People
* Suzanne (given name), a feminine given name (including a list of people with the name)
* S. U. Zanne, pen name of August Vandekerkhove (1838–1923), Belgian writer and inventor
* Suzanne, pen name of Renée Méndez ...
was undersecretary for the Minister of National Education in 1973 and 1974. In total, only seven women acceded to governmental offices between 1946 and 1974, and only one as minister.[ Historians explain this rarity by underlining the specific context of the '' Trente Glorieuses'' (Thirty Glorious Years) and of the baby boom, leading to a strengthening of familialism and ]patriarchy
Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of dominance and privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical anthropological term for families or clans controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males a ...
.
Even left-wing cabinets abstained from nominating women: Pierre Mendès-France
Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...
(advised by Colette Baudry
Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (; 28 January 1873 – 3 August 1954), known Mononymous person, mononymously as Colette, was a French author and woman of letters. She was also a Mime artist, mime, actress, and journalist. Colette is best known in the ...
) did not include any woman in his cabinet, neither did Guy Mollet
Guy Alcide Mollet (; 31 December 1905 – 3 October 1975) was a French politician. He led the socialist French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) from 1946 to 1969 and was the French Prime Minister from 1956 to 1957.
As Prime Minister ...
, the secretary general of the SFIO, nor the centrist Antoine Pinay. Although the '' École nationale d'administration'' (ENA) elite administrative school (from which a lot of French politicians graduate) became gender-mixed in 1945, only 18 women graduated from it between 1946 and 1956 (compared to 706 men).[
Of the first eleven cabinets of the Fifth Republic, four did not count any women. In May 1968, the cabinet was exclusively male. This low representation of women was not, however, specific to France: ]West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
's government did not include any women in any office from 1949 to 1961, and in 1974–1975, only 12 countries in the world had female ministers. The British government had exclusively male ministers.[
]
1974–1981
In 1974, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Valéry René Marie Georges Giscard d'Estaing (, , ; 2 February 19262 December 2020), also known as Giscard or VGE, was a French politician who served as President of France from 1974 to 1981.
After serving as Minister of Finance under prime ...
was elected President, and nominated 9 women in his government between 1974 and 1981: Simone Veil, the first female minister, Françoise Giroud, named Minister of the Feminine Condition, Hélène Dorlhac
Helene or Hélène may refer to: People
*Helene (given name), a Greek feminine given name
*Helen of Troy, the daughter of Zeus and Leda
*Helene, a figure in Greek mythology who was a friend of Aphrodite and helped her seduce Adonis
*Helene (Ama ...
, Alice Saunier-Séïté
Alice may refer to:
* Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname
Literature
* Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll
* ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...
, Annie Lesur
Annie may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Annie (given name), a given name and a list of people and fictional characters with the name
* Annie (actress) (born 1975), Indian actress
* Annie (singer) (born 1977), Norwegian singer
The ...
and Christiane Scrivener, Nicole Pasquier
Nicole may refer to:
People
* Nicole (name)
* Nicole (American singer) (born 1958), a contestant in season 3 of the American ''The X Factor''
* Nicole (Chilean singer) (born 1977)
* Nicole (German singer) (born 1964), winner of the 1982 Eurovi ...
, Monique Pelletier
Monique Pelletier (born July 12, 1969) is an American former alpine skier who competed in the 1992 Winter Olympics and 1994 Winter Olympics
The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games ( no, De 17. olympiske v ...
and Hélène Missoffe
Hélène Missoffe ( Hélène de Mitry; 15 June 1927 – 22 January 2015) was a French Union of Democrats for the Republic later the Rally for the Republic politician. She was elected three times as a deputy of the National Assembly between 1974 a ...
. At the end of the 1970s, France was one of the leading countries in the world with respect to the number of female ministers, just behind Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
. However, they remained highly under-represented in the National Assembly
In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...
. There were only 14 female deputies (1.8%) in 1973 and 22 (2.8%) in 1978. Janine Alexandre-Derbay
Janine may refer to:
People and characters
* Janine (given name)
Music
* "Janine" (David Bowie song), a 1969 song by David Bowie
* "Janine", a 1979 song by Trooper from the album '' Flying Colors''
* "Janine", a 1994 song by Soul Coughing f ...
, 67-year-old senator of the Republican Party
Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party.
Republican Party may also refer to:
Africa
*Republican Party (Liberia)
* Republican Part ...
(PR), initiated a hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most ...
to protest against the complete absence of women on the governmental majority's electoral lists in Paris.[
This new, relative feminisation of power was partly explained by Giscard's government's fears of being confronted with another May 1968 and the influence of the MLF: "We can therefore explain the birth of state feminism under the pressure of contest feminism 'féminisme de contestation'', wrote Christine Bard. Although the ]far-left
Far-left politics, also known as the radical left or the extreme left, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single definition. Some scholars consider ...
remained indifferent to the feminisation of power, in 1974, Arlette Laguiller
Arlette Yvonne Laguiller (born 18 March 1940) is a French politician. From 1973 to 2008, she was the spokeswoman and the best-known leader and presidential nominee of Lutte Ouvrière (LO), Trotskyist political party.
Career
Born at Les Lilas, ...
became the first woman to present herself at a presidential election (for the Trotskyist party Workers' Struggle, LO), and integrated feminist propositions in her party. Giscard's achievements concerning the inclusion of women in government has been qualified by Françoise Giroud as his most important feat, while others, such as Evelyne Surrot, Benoîte Groult or the minister Monique Pelletier
Monique Pelletier (born July 12, 1969) is an American former alpine skier who competed in the 1992 Winter Olympics and 1994 Winter Olympics
The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games ( no, De 17. olympiske v ...
, denounced electoral "alibis". The sociologist Mariette Sineau
Mariette Sineau is a French political scientist and sociologist, currently the research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research. Her research focuses on gender in politics, as well as sociological notions of parity and fai ...
underlined that Giscard included women only in the low-levels of the governmental hierarchy (state secretaries) and kept them in socio-educative affairs. Seven women in eighteen (from 1936 to 1981) had offices related to youth and education, and four (including two ministers) had offices related to health, reflecting a traditional gender division. The important Ministry of Finances, Defence
Defense or defence may refer to:
Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups
* Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare
* Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks
* Defense industr ...
, Foreign Affairs
''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and ...
and Interior
Interior may refer to:
Arts and media
* ''Interior'' (Degas) (also known as ''The Rape''), painting by Edgar Degas
* ''Interior'' (play), 1895 play by Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck
* ''The Interior'' (novel), by Lisa See
* Interior de ...
remained out of reach for women. Only six women in eighteen had been elected through universal suffrage. The rest were nominated by the Prime Minister. Hélène Missoffe was the only deputy to be named by Giscard.[
]
From the 1980s to today
After the election
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...
of the socialist candidate François Mitterrand
François Marie Adrien Maurice Mitterrand (26 October 19168 January 1996) was President of France, serving under that position from 1981 to 1995, the longest time in office in the history of France. As First Secretary of the Socialist Party, he ...
in 1981, Yvette Roudy
Yvette Roudy (born 10 April 1929) is a French politician. She served as a member of the National Assembly from 1986 to 1993, and from 1997 to 2002, representing Calvados. She was the Minister of Women's Rights from 1981 to 1986. She sponsore ...
passed the 1983 law against sexism
Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but it primarily affects women and girls.There is a clear and broad consensus among academic scholars in multiple fields that sexism refers primari ...
.
Left and right-wing female ministers signed the ''Manifeste des 10'' in 1996 for equal representation of women in politics.[ It was opposed by feminist historian and psychoanalyst ]Elisabeth Roudinesco
Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to:
People
* Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name)
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* HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships
* ''Elisabeth'' (sc ...
, who believed the existing legislation was sufficient.
Socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
Ségolène Royal was the first female presidential candidate to pass the first round of the French presidential election
Presidential elections in France determine who will serve as President of France and Co-Prince of Andorra for the French side for the next five years.
Until 2002, the elections were held every seven years. They are always held on a Sunday. Si ...
in 2007, confronting the conservative UMP candidate Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012.
Born in Paris, he is of Hungarian, Greek Jewish, and French origin. Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Se ...
. Sarkozy won in a tight contest, but one year later, polls showed voters regretted not sending Royal to the Élysée Palace
The Élysée Palace (french: Palais de l'Élysée; ) is the official residence of the President of the French Republic. Completed in 1722, it was built for nobleman and army officer Louis Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, who had been appointed Gover ...
and that she would win a 2008 match up with Sarkozy easily. She was a front-runner in their leadership election, which took place 20 November 2008 but was narrowly defeated in the second round by rival Martine Aubry
Martine Louise Marie Aubry (; née Delors; born 8 August 1950) is a French politician. She was the First Secretary of the French Socialist Party (''Parti Socialiste'', or PS) from November 2008 to April 2012, and has been the Mayor of Lille (No ...
, also a woman.
Joan Scott, a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...
, stated: "There is a longstanding commitment to the notion that the French do gender relations differently — especially from prudish Americans — and that has to do with the French understanding of seduction. Seduction is the alternative to thinking about exual harassmentas sexual harassment." Christine Bard, a professor at the University of Angers, echoed those thoughts, saying that there is an "idealization of seduction ''à la Française'', and that anti-feminism has become almost part of the national identity" in France.[
In 1990, following a case where a man had tortured and raped his wife, the Court of Cassation authorized prosecution of spouses for rape or sexual assault. In 1992, the Court of Cassation convicted a man of the rape of his wife, stating that the presumption that spouses have consented to sexual acts that occur within marriage is only valid when the contrary is not proven.] Until 1994, France kept in the French Penal Code the article from 1810 that exonerated a rapist if they later married their victim, and in 1994 Law 94-89 criminalized all marital rape.
Sexual harassment in the workplace was made subject to legal sanction in France starting only in 1992. The reach of those laws was not matched by vigorous enforcement, labor lawyers say.[ France's "reluctance to move more aggressively against sexual harassment reflects deeply rooted ideas about sexual relations and the relative power between men and women", said Scott.][
France outlawed street sexual harassment in 2018, passing a law declaring catcalling on streets and public transportation is subject to fines of up to €750, with more for more aggressive and physical behavior. The law also declared that sex between an adult and a person of 15 or under can be considered rape if the younger person is judged incompetent to give consent.] It also gives underage victims of rape an extra decade to file complaints, extending the deadline to 30 years from their turning 18.
See also
* Abortion in France
* Écriture féminine
''Écriture féminine,'' or "women's writing", is a term coined by French feminist and literary theorist Hélène Cixous in her 1975 essay "The Laugh of the Medusa". Cixous aimed to establish a genre of literary writing that deviates from tradit ...
* French structuralist feminism
Poststructural feminism is a branch of feminism that engages with insights from Post-structuralism, post-structuralist thought. Poststructural feminism emphasizes "the Contingency (philosophy), contingent and Discourse, discursive nature of iden ...
* History of the Left in France
* LGBT rights in France
* Protests of 1968
The protests of 1968 comprised a worldwide escalation of social conflicts, predominantly characterized by popular rebellions against state militaries and the bureaucracies.
In the United States, these protests marked a turning point for the ci ...
* State feminism
* Marie-Laure Sauty de Chalon
Marie-Laure Sauty de Chalon (born September 17, 1962) is a French businesswoman and feminist. She was CEO of the auFeminin.com group, from 2010 until April 2018. Aufeminin Group is the Europe's leading Internet portal dedicated to women's con ...
*Women in the French National Assembly
Women are able to be Members of Parliament in France; in the National Assembly. Women have been able to be involved in French legislative political life since 1945.
History
A record number of women were elected at the 2017 French legislative ele ...
References
Further reading
*Marie Cerati, ''Le club des citoyennes républicaines révolutionnaires'', Paris, éd. sociales, 1966
*Carolyn Eichner, ''Surmounting the Barricades: Women in the Paris Commune'', Indiana University Press, 2004
*Eric Fassin, Clarisse Fabre, ''Liberté, égalité, sexualités'', Belfond 2003.
*Lisa Greenwald, Daughters of 1968: Redefining French Feminism and the Women's Liberation Movement (Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2018)
*M. Jaspard, ''Enquête sur les violences faites aux femmes'', La documentation française, 2002.*Marc de Villiers, ''Histoire des clubs de femmes et des légions d’Amazones (1793-1848-1871)'', Paris, Plon-Nourrit et cie, 1910
{{Feminism in Europe
Political history of France
Society of France
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...