The Woman Question in France, 1400–1870

A revolutionary reinterpretation of the French past, focused on contesting and defending masculine hierarchy in relations between women and men.

Karen Offen (Author)

9781107188082, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 October 2017

302 pages
23.5 x 15.6 x 2 cm, 0.56 kg

'One finishes reading Offen's books in deep gratitude for the monumental labor that she invested in writing them. Thanks to the author's sustained, forthright pursuit of this new narrative in French history, many more topics now deserve further study … what elements of France's specificity in the contested woman question contributed to the country's slow, troubled modernization? What role, if any, did the debate have in France's overseas territories where race and ethnicity were also at play, especially in the interwar period? Such queries naturally arise from Offen's magisterial work, its shrewd insights and compelling detail …' James Smith Allen, The Journal of Modern History

This is a revolutionary reinterpretation of the French past from the early fifteenth century to the establishment of the Third Republic, focused on public challenges and defenses of masculine hierarchy in relations between women and men. Karen Offen surveys heated exchanges around women's 'influence'; their exclusion from 'authority'; the increasing prominence of biomedical thinking and population issues; concerns about education, intellect, and the sexual politics of knowledge; and the politics of women's work. Initially, the majority of commentators were literate and influential men. However, as more and more women attained literacy, they too began to analyze their situation in print and to contest men's claims about who women were and should be, and what they should be restrained from doing, and why. As urban print culture exploded and revolutionary ideas of 'equality' fuelled women's claims for emancipation, this question resonated throughout francophone Europe and, ultimately, across the seas.

Confronting the woman question in French history: a general introduction
1. Querying women's power and influence in French culture
2. Assessing the problem of women and political authority in French history
3. Bio-medical thinking, population concerns, and the politics of sexual knowledge
4. Education, intellect, and the sexual politics of knowledge
5. The politics of women's history in nineteenth-century France
6. The politics of women's work in France before 1870
7. Taking stock: the women question on the eve of the Third Republic
Appendix with important dates
Index.

Subject Areas: Gender studies: women [JFSJ1], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], European history [HBJD]