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UC Center Program Courses - Fall 2006
PCC 127. Women in 20th Century France
Prof.
Nadia Malinovich
Office Hours TBA |
Lecture
TBA
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This course is intended to introduce undergraduate students to the social and political history of women in France from the turn of the twentieth century down to the present-day. Beginning with the political watersheds of the Dreyfus Affair (1898-1906) and the separation of Church and State (1905), the course will examine themes of work, sexuality and politics and explore significant French particularities – notably the struggle between Catholics and republicans over laïcité and the impact of the separation of Church and State, the power of the pro-natalist lobby, the singularly high rate of women’s, and particularly married women’s labor force participation, the weight of agriculture and small-scale, family enterprise on the economy, and notions of Republican universalism – through locating such particularities in a broader, comparative context. [History, Women’s Studies, Sociology, Anthropology], 5.0 quarter credits.
COURSE MATERIALS
- Simone de Beauvoir, Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter
- Claire Duchen, Women’s Rights and Women’s Lives in France, 1944-1968, Routledge, 1994
- Course Reader (hereby referred to as [CR])
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Students are expected to attend all classes and participate in discussion. Occasional in-class writing assignments may be given. Discussion questions are posted on the online syllabus to guide you through the weekss readings, which should be completed before class on Thursday. A group of three students will be responsible for leading our Thursday class discussion (except when there is a film or guest lecture). Each student will also hand in a 2-3 page (individually written) reaction paper for the week they have chosen.
- Class Participation, including in-class writing, student-led discussion and reaction paper: 25%
- Mid-term Examination: 20%
- Final Examination: 30%
- Research paper (5-7 pages): 25%
COURSE SCHEDULE
Week 1.
Introduction: The Legacy of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Code, Women and Religion in the Nineteenth Century
Reading
- Olympe de Gouges, Declaration of the Rights of Women [CR] - (Declaration of the Rights of Man)
- Elinor Accampo, “Gender, Social Policy, and the Formation of the Third Republic ” in Gender and the Politics of Social Reform in France 1870-1914, John Hopkins University Press, 1995, pp. 1-27 [CR]
- James McMillan, “Clericals, Anticlericals and the Women’s Movement in France under the Third Republic” in Historical Journal, vol.24, n.1, March 1981, pp. 361-376
 Questions for class
Week 2.
Universal Primary Education and Gender, the Impact of the Separation of Church and State
Reading
- Jeanne Crouzet-Benaben, Reforming French Secondary Education for Girls ( 1911) [CR]
Linda Clark, Introduction, ch. 1 & 3 in Schooling the Daughters of Marianne: Textbooks and the Socialization of Girls in Modern French Primary Schools, State University of New York Press, 1984, pp. 1-25 & 60-80 [CR]
Questions for class
Week 3.
Feminism, Pro-Natalism and the Politics of the Family
Reading
- Nellie Roussel, “Protesting the Centenial of the Napoleonic Code 1904 and French Medal for Mothers Decree, 1920” [CR]
- Karen Offen, “Depopulation, Pro-Natalism and the Politics of the Family in Third Republic France” in American Historical Review, vol.89, 1984, pp. 648-676
- Jean Elisabeth Pederse, “Regulating Abortion and Birth Control: Gender, Medicine and Republican Politics in France, 1870-1920” in French Historical Studies, vol.19, n.3, Spring 1996, pp. 673-698
Questions for class
Week 4.
Women and the Great War
GUEST LECTURE
“Women during the War” - Laura Downs
Reading
- “The French Union for Women’s Suffrage, The Question of the Vote for Women” [CR]
- Hélène Brion, “The Trial of Hélène Brion au Prémier Conseil de Guerre”, statement read by Brion at her own trial for treason (1918) [CR]
- Laura Downs, “Women’s Strikes and the Politics of Popular Egalitarianism” in Rethinking Labor History, University of Illinois Press, 1993, pp. 114-149 [CR]
- Steven C. Hause, “More Miverva than Mars: The French Women’s Rights Campaign and the First World War” in Behind the Lines: Gender and the Two World Wars, Yale University Press, 1987, pp. 99-113 [CR]
Questions for class
Week 5.
A World Turned Upside Down?
Reading
- Coco Chanel, “The Chanel Look” [CR]
- Mary-Louise Roberts, Introduction & Ch. 1 in Civilization Without Sexes: Reconstructing Gender in Postwar France, 1917-1927, University of Chicago Press, 1984, pp. 1-45 [CR]
Questions for class
Week 6.
Conformity and Rebellion
Reading
- Simone de Beauvoir, Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, selections
Questions for class
Film
- Jules et Jim, François Truffaut
Week 7.
Midterm Exam
FALL BREAK
Week 8.
Immigration and Colonialism in the 1920s and 1930s Inter-War Years
Reading
- Elisa Camiscioli, “Reproducing Citizens, Reproducing the “French Race”: Immigration, Demography, and Pronatalism in Early Twentieth Century France” in Gender and History, vol.13, n.3, pp. 594-621
- Frances Gouda & Julia Clancy-Smith, “Introduction” & Alice Cocklin, “Redefining Frenchness: Citizenship, Race, Regeneration and the Imperial Motherhood in France and West Africa, 1914-40” in Domesticating the Empire: Race, Gender and Family Life in French and Dutch Colonialism, University of Virginia, 1998, pp. 1-20, 65-83 [CR]
Questions for class
Week 9.
Vichy and the Holocaust, 1940-44
Reading
- Charlotte Delbo, “Arrivals Departures” in None of Us Will Return, Grove Press [CR]
- Lucienne Blondel, “Women and French Fascism” [CR]
- Paula Schwartz, “Partisanes and gender politics in Vichy France” in French Historical Studies, vol.16, 1989, pp.127-151
- Claire Duchen, Chapter 1 in Women’s Rights and Women’s Lives in France, 1944-1968, pp. 7-32
Questions for class
Week 10.
Women’s Rights and Reconstruction in the Aftermath of WWII
Reading
- Claire Duchen, Chapters 2 & 5 Women’s Rights and Women’s Lives in France, 1944-1968, pp. 33-63, 128-164
Film
- Huit Femmes, François Ozon
Week 11.
Gender Politics and the Women’s Liberation Movement
Reading
- “The Right to Choose: Abortion on Trial in France” & Simone de Beauvoir, “I am a Feminist” [CR]
- Claire Duchen, Chapters 6 & 7 in Women’s Rights and Women’s Lives in France, 1944-1968, pp. 165-211
- Ruth Rosen, Preface & ch. 1-2 in The World Split Open: How the Modern Women’s Movement Changed America, Penguin, 2000, pp. xi-xxxvi & 3-59 [CR]
Questions for class
Week 12.
Comparing French and American Feminism, Gender and Feminist Politics at the Turn of the 21 st-Century
5-7 Page PAPER due in class (May 16)
Reading
- Geneviève Fraisse, “Exclusive Democracy: A French Paradigm” & F. Gaspard & F. Khosrokhavar, “The Headscarf and the Republic” in Célestin, Dalmolin, Beyond French Feminism: Debates on Women, Politics and Culture in France, 1981-2001, Palgrave Macmillan, 2003, pp. 51-67 [CR]
Questions for class
Week 13.
FINAL EXAM
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