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 History French women have traditionally been able to exercise power without having legal rights. This has gone back to the medieval times, when the chivalric code replaced the misogyny, feeling of hatred against women, of the Middle Ages, where men enjoyed the legal right to beat and whip their wives for erring. Chivalric society shifted the image of women from object of scorn to subject of highest consideration. Because of this, the woman, the dispensers of courtly/romantic love, could control masculine behavior. The Hundred Years War (1337-1453) was a period of decline for the courtly tradition, since men reverted to their warrior role. However, the social position of women went up because of the emergence of the political mistress. They had influence over their lovers and would sometimes make decisions for them concerning national events. French love was without restraint for the next couple centuries, and women used sexual intrigue to monopolize society. French women had no rights, however, such that she could not learn how to read (therefore preventing her from sending and receiving love letters). In the eighteenth century, the social influence of women depended on her ability to maneuver in the court. Although they were legally inferior, women at court were equals because they participate actively in day-to-day life. For many centuries now, French women have had much power over society, but during the French revolution, there came a new relationship between the sexes that lasted until the mid 20th century-one of proprietorship, of ownership. Despite this, women were more politically active than ever, especially those of the city of Paris. At the beginning of the revolution, October 1789, an expedition of 6,000 Parisian women of different social classes marched to Versailles to demand bread from King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette in person. They escorted King Louis and his family back to Paris so he could see the situation for himself. An important figure in the French Revolution is Olympe de Gorges, who was one of the most outspoken revolutionaries of the time. She challenged the inferiority of women in French society and wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Man. She was quickly arrested, tried and executed by the guillotine. The Napoleonic Code following the Revolution was incredibly discriminatory against the women. They were not legal and their husbands controlled almost ever aspect of their lives. For example, article 213 said: “The husband owes protection to the wife, and the wife obedience to the husband.” This lasted from 1804 to 1938, when half a dozen of the unfair laws of the Napoleonic Code were abolished. The suffragette movement in France was slow to start, but although there were few feminist organizations, French women worked slowly toward suffrage. French women worked within the system instead of trying to change it outright, and they fought strongly against the bourgeois view of women as property. Women were allowed to take new jobs and responsibilities while the men fought in many wars, and this further advanced the suffragette movement. Also, they slowly whittled away at the unfair Napoleonic Code. And finally on April 21, 1944, under the postwar government of General de Gaulle, women were granted the right to vote. Present Politics French women had won the right to vote in 1944, but are feebly represented in politics today. They occupy just under 11% of the seats in the lower house of the parliament, a smaller share than in any European country except Greece, and only 5.9% of those in the senate. Barely 8% of the mayors are female, and in the 1998 regional elections, women only won 7.8% of the seats. Only one of the 22 regional governments is presided over by a woman. These low numbers is because of the idea that women should stick to the private sphere while the public sphere should remain a man's world. A lot of women won't question this, and some might even agree to it. Domestic life/issues French women have traditionally been low on childbearing. They realized early on that the low birthrate wouldn’t deplete the country’s resources, but during the many wars in the past centuries, the government realized the folly of having such a low birthrate and the disadvantages they had compared with high population countries such as Germany. They started giving tax cuts to families who would have more children. However, French women still are quite restrained on the number of children they have. Education Education for women was not approved until 1867, when the great educator Victor Durey made some experiments, to educate young women in the presence of their parents. However, his emissaries to the provinces reported that female education was generally regarded as a social danger. Women’s education didn’t exist for another generation, when the first girl’s high school opened. By 1900 there were 24 schools for girls in France, and 10 years later, they were allowed to pass the baccalaureate exam, which is a ticket to higher education (which was previously restricted to men). In 1938 special university degrees for women were done away with. Now, 99% of women in France are literate. |
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