ABSTRACT
The Paris International Exhibition of 1937 was one of contradictions, and controversy, held in the shadows of economic depression and the threat of a European war. The inter-war period had seen progress in women’s rights elsewhere, and even in France, despite the continuing refusal of suffrage, women were far more active at many levels in social and political life than in 1914. This chapter considers the contribution made by women to the French exhibits of 1937. It is based on memoirs and contemporary documentation, as well as on recent research. It argues that in many ways the exhibition reflected a continuing cultural mindset on the part of the virtually all-male overall organizing committees, in which women would be important chiefly as consumers, especially of France’s traditional goods, like fashion. Compared with 1900, enthusiasm for feminism, for example, is very hard to find. If one looks more closely at the exhibits, some nuances appear. While women were certainly in a minority among sectional committee members, some well-known women in established careers were employed as designers, consultants and decorators across the board, and were represented in artistic exhibitions. And while it is true that the chief focus of the “women’s pavilion,” entitled “Femme, enfant et famille” (Woman, Child and Family) was women’s caring role in the family, the detail and planning of this pavilion represented the unprecedented cooperation between the Popular Front Health Ministry, under Henri Sellier, and various women’s associations. Its aim was to promote public health and the social services, harnessing the energy of women previously working in voluntary or private women’s groups, and anticipating the future welfare state. To that extent it was forward-looking. Nevertheless, as an index of the status of women in France, which was in fact changing in a number of ways, (education, employment, local politics) the 1937 Exhibition is not the best guide and it is to the less showy area of statistics and witnesses that the historian should turn.
