Daughters of 1968

Redefining French Feminism and the Women's Liberation Movement

Lisa Greenwald

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781496207555
• eBook ISBN:
  9781496212016
• Topic: Histoire
• Subtopic: Histoire de la France

Daughters of 1968 is the story of French feminism between 1944 and 1981, when feminism played a central political role in the history of France.The key women during this epoch were often leftists committed to a materialist critique of society and were part of a postwar tradition that produced widespread social change, revamping the workplace and laws governing everything from abortion to marriage. The May 1968 events—with their embrace of radical individualism and antiauthoritarianism—triggered a break from the past, and the women's movement split into two strands. One became universalist and intensely activist, the other particularist and less activist, distancing itself from contemporary feminism. This theoretical debate manifested itself in battles between women and organizations on the streets and in the courts. The history of French feminism is the history of women's claims toindividualism and citizenship that had beengranted their male counterparts, at least in principle, in 1789. Yet French women have more often donned the mantle of particularism, advancingtheir contributions as mothers to prove their worth as citizens, than they have thrown it off, claiming absolute equality. The few exceptions, such as Simone de Beauvoir or the 1970s activists, illustrate the diversity and tensions within French feminism, as France moved from a corporatist and tradition-minded country to one marked by individualism and modernity.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Reigniting French Feminism for the Twentieth Century
• 1. Liberation and Rethinking Gender Roles: 1944–1950
• 2. Reform and Consensus: Feminism in the 1950s and 1960s
• 3. The May Events and the Birth of Second–Wave Feminism: 1968–1970
• 4. New Feminist Theory and Feminist Practice: The Early 1970s
• 5. The Mouvement de Libération des Femmes and the Fight for Reproductive Freedom: 1970–1979
• 6. Takeover? Feminists In and Out of Party Politics: The Late 1970s
• 7. Who Owns Women’s Liberation? The Campaigns for French Women
• Not a Conclusion: The Socialist Party’s Ascendancy and French Feminism’s Second Wave
• Appendix: The Feminist Press in France, 1968–1981
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index