Debating the woman question in the French Third Republic, 1870-1920 / Karen Offen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Offen, Karen M., author.

Series:

New studies in European history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women--France--Social conditions--19th century.

Women.

Women--France--Social conditions--20th century.

Women's rights--France--History--19th century.

Women's rights.

Women's rights--France--History--20th century.

Feminism--France--History--19th century.

Feminism.

Feminism--France--History--20th century.

History.

Social conditions.

France--History--Third Republic, 1870-1940.

France.

Women--Social conditions.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xvi, 694 pages ; 24 cm.

regular print

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2018.

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: pt. I FAMILIARIZATION: ROMANCE WITH THE REPUBLIC, 1870S-1889

QUOTATIONS

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

pt. II encounter: the third republic faces feminist claims, 189o-19oo

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

pt. III CLIMAX: MAINSTREAMING THE WOMAN QUESTION, 1901-1914

9. Building a Force to Reckon with the Republic: The Conseil National des Femmes Francaises and Its Allies, 1900

1914

10. Defining, Historicizing, Contesting, and Defending Feminism: Early Twentieth-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 a Domicile, and Women's Right to Work

13. "The Alpha and Omega of Our Demands" - The Women's Suffrage Campaigns Heat Up, 1906

pt. IV ANTI-CLIMAX: THE GREAT WAR AND ITS AFTERMATH

14. The Great War and the Woman Question

15. "Half the Human Race": Epilogue and Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781107188044

1107188040

9781316638408

1316638405

OCLC:

973768238