ABSTRACT
During the nineteenth century, French society held strong to the idea that a woman's social identity was defined in terms of her reproductive behaviour and marital status. This was especially true during the Ancien Regime and, in spite of the maelstrom of 1789, reinforced by the Code Civil of 1804. P. Stearns has suggested that nineteenth-century society was more sympathetic to the widow in comparison to her unmarried counterparts and that this was directly linked to the widow having accepted and fulfilled her marital and reproductive duties as a woman. Turning to the fin-de-siecle this period reveals a further instance that points to a particularly remarkable era in the history of widowhood. The Franco-Prussian War, lasting less than one year from 1870–1871, resulted in a large number of young widows living in France. When examining the governmental regulations established for women during the fin-de-siecle, it becomes clear that the Code Civil did not allow them much freedom: social, economic, or legal.
