ABSTRACT
At the end of the war, French women were enfranchised. This was the most obvious way in which a revised public presence for women in postwar France was anticipated. Women’s suffrage was claimed, mainly by the Left, as a reward for their Resistance activities. This was stated as though it was simply an accepted fact. Former Resister Lucie Aubrac said: ‘To sum it [the war] up as far as women were concerned? Much suffering, but not in vain. We won the right to vote and thereby the chance to make other changes.’1 There was no suggestion that women had the same right to vote as men for the simple reason that women were human beings with ‘inalienable rights’; no acknowledgement of the fact that women had been demanding the vote for decades.2 Aubrac’s statement reflected the commonly held view that women had ‘proved’ that they were worthy of citizenship and that political rights marked the beginning of equality for women. Other changes in women’s status, it was thought, would follow on naturally.
