Gender, Fascism and Right-Wing in France between the wars: the Catholic matrix
This article aims... more Gender, Fascism and Right-Wing in France between the wars: the Catholic matrix
This article aims to overcome the ongoing debate about French fascism by offering an analysis from a gendered perspective. Based on original archive material and litterature, it provides a interpretation in terms of contunuity between prewar conservative movements, Catholic women's leagues and the far-right organzations in terms of gender representations and of sexual division of political labour. The first part of the article focuses on the contrast between a vivid and flourishing scholarship on Gender and Fascism led by English-speaking scholars, and a very scarce research done in France. The debate over the existence and the peculiarity of a French fascism obscurred the emergence of innovative research on subject as women, masculinity and more generally gender in the French Academy. Nevertheless, the emprical survey based on archivistic material of the Catholic Church and Catholic women's leagues as well as the more usual material from the National Archives, provides new evidences of continuity from and organisational and ideological perspective between the Catholic Action league, the Croix de Feu/Parti Social Français and the Jeunesses Patriotes.
This contribution to the political science dictionnary "Dictionnaire genre & science politique" s... more This contribution to the political science dictionnary "Dictionnaire genre & science politique" shed light on the use of gender as a useful category of analysis in historical sociology. It deals with classical subjects as citizenship or politicization and provide a fresh light on womens agency and electoral activism before franchise.
Reference: "Politisation et socio-histoire", Achin Catherine et Bereni Laure (dir.). Dictionnaire genre & science politique : concepts, objets, problèmes, Presses de sciences po, 2013, pp.406-417.
Through a comparative study of two Catholic associations, the Ligue patriotique des Françaises (F... more Through a comparative study of two Catholic associations, the Ligue patriotique des Françaises (French Women’s Patriotic League, LPDF) and the Unione fra le donne cattoliche d’Italia (Union of Catholic Women of Italy, UDCI), this article sheds some light on the role of gender and the Church in the politicization process. Working alongside Roman Catholic politicians, the women in the LPDF established a conservative feminine repertoire of collective action and participated, albeit indirectly, in electoral politics. The Italian political and religious context, in contrast, did not allow any such scope for Catholic women to get involved in politics. This article aims to gain some new insight into the various ways conservative women did politics before their eventual enfranchisement.
Cet article s’intéresse à la tension entre les discours conservateurs des ligues de femmes cathol... more Cet article s’intéresse à la tension entre les discours conservateurs des ligues de femmes catholiques en France et en Italie, et leurs pratiques innovatrices. L’intérêt de l’utilisation du genre comme outil, et non seulement comme catégorie, d’analyse est de révéler le passage d’un modèle normatif conservateur porté par ces mouvements catholiques au début du XXe siècle, à des actions et des comportements nouveaux chez les femmes catholiques françaises et italiennes. Le contexte de séparation de l’Eglise et de l’Etat, où le modèle de citoyenneté basé sur l’individu mâle rationnel exclut les femmes de la citoyenneté, place la Ligue patriotique des Françaises (1902-1933) et l’Unione fra le donne cattoliche d’Italia (1909-1919) dans une position de refus de la modernité d'un point de vue discursif. Pourtant, et c’est là le cœur de notre article, ces associations ont été porteuses d’une modernité chez les catholiques. C’est cette dialectique entre une position conservatrice sur le plan politique et la nécessité de s’adapter à son temps en investissant l’action sociale qui a travaillé les associations catholiques féminines françaises et italiennes durant les premières décennies du XXe siècle. l’histoire du genre nous montre donc comment s’est imposé et construit un nouveau modèle de femme catholique, entre la religieuse et la gardienne du foyer, à travers cette tension entre des discours conservateurs et des pratiques innovatrices.
Gender, Fascism and Right-Wing in France between the wars: the Catholic matrix
This article aims... more Gender, Fascism and Right-Wing in France between the wars: the Catholic matrix
This article aims to overcome the ongoing debate about French fascism by offering an analysis from a gendered perspective. Based on original archive material and litterature, it provides a interpretation in terms of contunuity between prewar conservative movements, Catholic women's leagues and the far-right organzations in terms of gender representations and of sexual division of political labour. The first part of the article focuses on the contrast between a vivid and flourishing scholarship on Gender and Fascism led by English-speaking scholars, and a very scarce research done in France. The debate over the existence and the peculiarity of a French fascism obscurred the emergence of innovative research on subject as women, masculinity and more generally gender in the French Academy. Nevertheless, the emprical survey based on archivistic material of the Catholic Church and Catholic women's leagues as well as the more usual material from the National Archives, provides new evidences of continuity from and organisational and ideological perspective between the Catholic Action league, the Croix de Feu/Parti Social Français and the Jeunesses Patriotes.
This contribution to the political science dictionnary "Dictionnaire genre & science politique" s... more This contribution to the political science dictionnary "Dictionnaire genre & science politique" shed light on the use of gender as a useful category of analysis in historical sociology. It deals with classical subjects as citizenship or politicization and provide a fresh light on womens agency and electoral activism before franchise.
Reference: "Politisation et socio-histoire", Achin Catherine et Bereni Laure (dir.). Dictionnaire genre & science politique : concepts, objets, problèmes, Presses de sciences po, 2013, pp.406-417.
Through a comparative study of two Catholic associations, the Ligue patriotique des Françaises (F... more Through a comparative study of two Catholic associations, the Ligue patriotique des Françaises (French Women’s Patriotic League, LPDF) and the Unione fra le donne cattoliche d’Italia (Union of Catholic Women of Italy, UDCI), this article sheds some light on the role of gender and the Church in the politicization process. Working alongside Roman Catholic politicians, the women in the LPDF established a conservative feminine repertoire of collective action and participated, albeit indirectly, in electoral politics. The Italian political and religious context, in contrast, did not allow any such scope for Catholic women to get involved in politics. This article aims to gain some new insight into the various ways conservative women did politics before their eventual enfranchisement.
Cet article s’intéresse à la tension entre les discours conservateurs des ligues de femmes cathol... more Cet article s’intéresse à la tension entre les discours conservateurs des ligues de femmes catholiques en France et en Italie, et leurs pratiques innovatrices. L’intérêt de l’utilisation du genre comme outil, et non seulement comme catégorie, d’analyse est de révéler le passage d’un modèle normatif conservateur porté par ces mouvements catholiques au début du XXe siècle, à des actions et des comportements nouveaux chez les femmes catholiques françaises et italiennes. Le contexte de séparation de l’Eglise et de l’Etat, où le modèle de citoyenneté basé sur l’individu mâle rationnel exclut les femmes de la citoyenneté, place la Ligue patriotique des Françaises (1902-1933) et l’Unione fra le donne cattoliche d’Italia (1909-1919) dans une position de refus de la modernité d'un point de vue discursif. Pourtant, et c’est là le cœur de notre article, ces associations ont été porteuses d’une modernité chez les catholiques. C’est cette dialectique entre une position conservatrice sur le plan politique et la nécessité de s’adapter à son temps en investissant l’action sociale qui a travaillé les associations catholiques féminines françaises et italiennes durant les premières décennies du XXe siècle. l’histoire du genre nous montre donc comment s’est imposé et construit un nouveau modèle de femme catholique, entre la religieuse et la gardienne du foyer, à travers cette tension entre des discours conservateurs et des pratiques innovatrices.
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This article aims to overcome the ongoing debate about French fascism by offering an analysis from a gendered perspective. Based on original archive material and litterature, it provides a interpretation in terms of contunuity between prewar conservative movements, Catholic women's leagues and the far-right organzations in terms of gender representations and of sexual division of political labour. The first part of the article focuses on the contrast between a vivid and flourishing scholarship on Gender and Fascism led by English-speaking scholars, and a very scarce research done in France. The debate over the existence and the peculiarity of a French fascism obscurred the emergence of innovative research on subject as women, masculinity and more generally gender in the French Academy. Nevertheless, the emprical survey based on archivistic material of the Catholic Church and Catholic women's leagues as well as the more usual material from the National Archives, provides new evidences of continuity from and organisational and ideological perspective between the Catholic Action league, the Croix de Feu/Parti Social Français and the Jeunesses Patriotes.
Reference: "Politisation et socio-histoire", Achin Catherine et Bereni Laure (dir.). Dictionnaire genre & science politique : concepts, objets, problèmes, Presses de sciences po, 2013, pp.406-417.
This article aims to overcome the ongoing debate about French fascism by offering an analysis from a gendered perspective. Based on original archive material and litterature, it provides a interpretation in terms of contunuity between prewar conservative movements, Catholic women's leagues and the far-right organzations in terms of gender representations and of sexual division of political labour. The first part of the article focuses on the contrast between a vivid and flourishing scholarship on Gender and Fascism led by English-speaking scholars, and a very scarce research done in France. The debate over the existence and the peculiarity of a French fascism obscurred the emergence of innovative research on subject as women, masculinity and more generally gender in the French Academy. Nevertheless, the emprical survey based on archivistic material of the Catholic Church and Catholic women's leagues as well as the more usual material from the National Archives, provides new evidences of continuity from and organisational and ideological perspective between the Catholic Action league, the Croix de Feu/Parti Social Français and the Jeunesses Patriotes.
Reference: "Politisation et socio-histoire", Achin Catherine et Bereni Laure (dir.). Dictionnaire genre & science politique : concepts, objets, problèmes, Presses de sciences po, 2013, pp.406-417.