See Christine Bard, Les filles de Marianne: Histoire des Féminismes, 1914–1940 (Paris, 1995). Many thanks to F. Blum, S. Chaperon, G. Houbre, M. Ríot-Sarcey, S. Wahnich, and M. Zancarini-Fournel, whose comments on this article were extremely helpful, and especially to F. Thébaud.

1. See Figures 1 and 2 for illustrations from L'Ouvrière, journal of the Communist party, on the subject of votes for women.Google Scholar

2. See Godineau, Dominique, Citoyennes tricoteuses: Les femmes du peuple à Paris pendant la Révolution française (Aix-en-Provence, 1988).Google Scholar In the 1830s, Louise Dauriat noted that these women revolutionaries were not citizens because “one is only a citizen when one exercises political, religious and civil rights.” See Riot-Sarcey, Michèle, La démocratie à l'épreuve des femmes (Paris, 1994), 107.Google Scholar

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5. In 1911 there were 7,217,000 employed women and 12,879,000 employed men; in 1936 there were 6,542,000 employed women and 12,650,000 employed men. Figures cited in Marchand, Olivier and Thélot, Claude, Deux Siècles de travail en France (Paris, 1991), 68.Google Scholar

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27. One may wonder about this directive of the Second International, obviously inspired by the German situation where the break between “bourgeois” feminism and a particularly feminist and feminized workers' movement had been well in place since 1889. Things were somewhat different on the other side of the border. Republican, socialist, and humanist ideals brought feminists, socialists, and moderate trade unionists in close proximity. Rapproachement, though possible, never occurred.

28. See the presentation of Sohn, Anne-Marie on Bebel, Auguste, Le femme dans le passé, le présent et l'avenir (Paris, 1979; orig. 1891), I–XXI.Google Scholar

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31. Cited in Le Droit des Femmes, June 1936, 85.Google Scholar

32. Pelletier, Madeleine, “Vote des femmes et service militaire,” La Suffragiste 10 (12 1912).Google Scholar

33. Auclert, Hubertine (1848–1914) is considered to be the first French suffragist. It was she who coined the term “feminist” in 1882.Google Scholar See Hause, Steven C., Hubertine Auclert: The French Suffragette (New Haven, 1987).Google Scholar

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35. Reprinted in Opinions de femmes: De la veille au lendemain de la Révolution Française, ed. Fraisse, Geneviève (Paris, 1989), 47–62.Google Scholar

36. Auclert, Hubertine, Egalité sociale et politique de la femme et de l'homme (Marseille, n.d.).Google Scholar See the detailed analysis of this by Rebérioux, Madeleine, Dufrancatel, Christiane, and Slama, Béatrice, “Hubertine Auclert et la question des femmes à l'‘immortel congrès’ (1879),” Romantisme 13–14 (1976):47–62.Google Scholar

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39. Cited in “Les anciens combattants et le vote des femmes,” La Française, June 23, 1934.Google Scholar

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48. The debate continues. See Dietz, Mary G., “Citizenship with a Feminist Face: The Problem of Maternal Thinking,” Political Theory 13 (02 1985):19–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

49. The defense of social citizenship became the orientation favored by feminists in countries such as the United States where equality of political rights had been obtained. See Sarvasy, Wendy, “Beyond the Difference versus Equality Policy Debate: Post Suffrage Feminism, Citizenship, and the Quest for a Feminist Welfare State,” Signs 17 (Winter 1992): 329–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

50. See Blum, Françoise and Horne, Janet, “Féminisme et Musée social: 1916–1939,” Vie sociale 8–9 (08/09 1986):314–402;Google Scholar and Paul Gradvohl, “Les premières années de l'Association des surintendantes d'usine (1917–1939),” ibid., 377–443.

51. This phrase is that of Eleanor Roosevelt, feminist, pacifist, and nonconformist wife of the president of the United States; it illustrates a sentiment common to most feminists. Cited in Evans, Sara, Les Américaines: Histoire des femmes aux Etats-Unis (Paris, 1991), 294.Google Scholar

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53. This way of exalting your maternity is simply another way of keeping you down. You are only something because you have the honor, sometimes, of producing a man, of carrying a son in your belly. As for me, ladies, I am not a wife, I am not a mother, and I declare that I do not consider myself less because of it. I am a woman and that is enough, wrote Deraismes, Maria in 1868 (Eve dans l'humanité, ed. Klejman, Laurence [Paris, 1990], 137).Google ScholarMadeleine Pelletier pushed this logic even further by recommending the “virilization of women” as a means of achieving individuation. See Christine Bard, “L'égalité des sexes et la virilisation des femmes,” in Madeleine Pelletier, 91–108.Google Scholar

54. If all feminists agreed to defend the rights of mothers, especially working mothers (and not excluding the rights of children), the defense or rejection of maternity in theoretical discussions occasioned sharp debate. See Knibiehler, Yvonne and Fouquet, Catherine, Histoire des mères (Paris, 1977);Google Scholar and Thébaud, Françoise, Donner la vie: La maternité en France dans l'entre-deux-guerres (Lyon, 1986).Google Scholar

55. The chapter of my dissertation devoted to this subject owes much to the problems posed by Thalmann, Rita in Etre femme sons le IIlème Reich (Paris, 1982).Google Scholar Under the circumstances the responsibility of women as subjects of history must be recognized, even when they are only “passive” or second-class citizens. Koonz, Claudia in Mothers in the Fatherland:Women, the Family and Nazi Politics (New York, 1986) also takes this approach.Google Scholar

56. This was true for the feminists but generally for a large number of other women as well. See Thébaud, Françoise, La femme au temps de la guerre de 14 (Paris, 1986).Google Scholar

57. Marc Bloch argued: “I will not make an exception for women, save only young mothers whose survival is essential for their children. They are absolutely right and I do not see how their courage is less natural, or less obligatory, than our own. L'Etrange défaite: Témoignage écrit en 1940 (Paris, 1990), 164.Google Scholar

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