France and Women, 1789-1914: Gender, Society and Politics

France and Womenis the first book to offer an authoritative account of women's history throughout the nineteenth century. McMillan offers a major reinterpretation of the French past in relation to gender throughout these tumultuous decades of revolution and war. The book provides a challenging discussion of the factors which made French political culture so profoundly sexist and in particular, it shows that many of the myths about progress and emancipation associated with modernization and the coming of mass politics do not stand up to close scrutiny. The author provides detailed discussions of the: legacy of the Enlightenment; aftermath of the French Revolution; cultural construction of femininity; bourgeois women in the Belle Epoque; family and community of laboring women; and sexual division of labor. He also reveals the conservative nature of the republican left and of the ingrained belief throughout French society that women should remain within thedomestic sphere.

James McMillan is Richard Pares Professor of History at the University of Edinburgh.