ABSTRACT
Approximately half of the French population was female, yet women played a subordinate public role since they suffered from social, legal, political and economic discrimination. After 1870 a number of factors helped to change the position of women in French society. The authority and attitudes of the Roman Catholic Church came under sustained attack from republicans and anti-clericals, while feminists developed new ideas about role of women and demanded an end to discrimination. Rejected by the Revolution, women returned to Catholicism, and, under the influence of the Church, formed that immense reactionary force imbued with the spirit of the past which stifles the Revolution every time it wants to revive. Like the role and rights of women, the institution of the family featured as a subject of debate. Traditionalists saw family as one of the principal foundations of society, as an institution sanctified by the Church, and as a crucial factor in determining an individual's wealth and social status.
