Tijdens de Derde Republiek onderkenden de politieke machthebbers de rol die vrouwen bij de sociale hervorming konden spelen. De basis van de verzorgingsstaat werd gelegd. De positie van vrouwen, zowel in het gezin als in de maatschappij, veranderde hierdoor. Aandacht wordt besteed aan echtscheiding, moederschap, infanticide en vrouwenarbeid. Tevens wordt de situatie in Frankrijk vergeleken met andere landen. Bevat de volgende bijdragen: Gender, social policy, and the formation of the Third Republic: an introduction / Elinor A. Accampo : The republican brotherhood: gender and ideology / Judith F. Stone : Divorce and the republican family / Theresa McBride : The right to life: Paul Strauss and the politics of motherhood / Rachel G. Fuchs : Setting the standards: labor and family reformers / Mary Lynn Stewart : Bringing feminine qualities into the public sphere: the Third Republic's appointment of women inspectors / Linda L. Clark : France in a comparitive perspective / Rachel G. Fuchs.
During the nineteenth century, European women of all countries and social classes experienced many changes in their familial, working and political lives. In this study three themes are united: 1) the tension between tradition and modernity, 2) the changing relationship between the community and individual, 3) the shifting boundaries between public and private.
This book offers a transnational understanding of citizenship since the late eighteenth century. Framed around three themes :agency, space and borders , the authors demonstrate what historians can bring to the study of citizenship and its relationship with the theory and practice of democracy. The essays examine the past interactions of women and men with public authorities, their participation in civic life within various kinds of polities and the meanings they attached to their actions.