ABSTRACT
By the end of the 1960s, women’s position within the family and in the labour market, their control over their own bodies, and the way in which they could perceive their future were significantly different from what they had been in 1945. While the changing socioeconomic and political context was clearly the prime factor affecting women’s lives, it also took the determined actions of determined individuals to bring about change: the pioneering work and lobbying activities of women were crucial, and yet are often ignored in accounts of how France became a ‘modern’ society. Legislation improving women’s status does not happen by itself or through the good nature of lawmakers: women have had to fight for change every inch of the way. Yet the achievements of the 1960s (when they are mentioned) are usually attributed to government efforts to make the law match practice, or as a kind of inevitable progress, for which women are given no credit.
