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Women and the Labour Movement in France, 1869–1914*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Patricia J. Hilden
Patricia J. Hilden
Affiliation:
Emory University
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Extract

In histories of European trade union movements, the observation that women industrial workers were rarely found among the membership has become axiomatic. In virtually every developed nation, it seems that once the industrial order was established, predominantly male trade unions were everywhere the rule, and female unions and trade unionists everywhere notable exceptions.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 29 , Issue 4 , December 1986 , pp. 809 - 832
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

1 Solden, Norbert, in Women in British trade unions, 1874–1976, (Dublin, 1978)Google Scholar, describes the earliest women's unions in Britain in the late 18th century. Similar groups may well have existed in areas of textile spinning such as West Flanders.

2 See, e.g., Taylor, Barbara, Eve and the New Jerusalem (London, 1983)Google Scholar; Rowbotham, Sheila, Hidden from history (London, 1973)Google Scholar.

3 See, Scott, Joan and Tilly, Louise, Women, work and family (New York, 1976)Google Scholar, and their earlier formulation in ‘Women' work and the family in nineteenth-century Europe’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, XVII, 1 (1973), 36–64Google Scholar. Hobsbawm, Eric argued a similar line in ‘Man and woman in socialist iconography’, History Workshop Journal, VI (1978), 131–40Google Scholar. I have criticized this approach in, e.g. ‘Women's history or the history of the family?’, International labour and working class history (1979), 1–11.

4 See Judt's, Tony remarks on the problems of working with French statistics in Socialism in Provence (Cambridge, 1976), pp. 337–42Google Scholar.

5 Figures found in Guilbert, Madeleine, Les Femmes et l'organisation syndicale avant 1914 (Paris, 1966), p. 14Google Scholar.

6 See, France: Recensement générale de la population, 1911.

7 Tony Judt provided me with this example, which is found in Agulhon, Maurice, Une Ville ouvriére au temps du socialisme utopique: Toulon de 1815 à 1851 (Paris, 1970), pp. 66–7Google Scholar.

8 Auzias, Claire and Houel, Annik, La Grève des ovalistes, Lyon, juin–juillet 1869 (Paris, 1982)Google Scholar. The book includes an important preface by Michelle Perrot, pp. 5–10.

9 This belief was both widespread and tenacious. See, e.g., Dublin, Thomas, Women at work (New York, 1979)Google Scholar, who describes these views in the context of New England textile mills; and Boulger, D. C., Belgian life in town and country (New York, 1904)Google Scholar, who makes the same point for Belgian industry. Such views were carried to ridiculous extremes. In the U.S., some reformers argued that sewing machines provoked debauchery amongst women workers.

10 See Hufton, Olwen, ‘Women in revolution, 1789–1796’, Past and Present, LIII (1971), 90–108CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and documents collected in Levy, Darlene et al. (eds.), Women in Revolutionary Paris 1789–1795 (Urbana, 1979)Google Scholar. See also, Thomas, Edith, Les Pélroleuses (Paris, 1963)Google Scholar.

11 Auzias, and Houel, , Ovalistes, p. 150Google Scholar.

12 Discussed in ibid. Women were thus caught between a rock and a hard place. If they worked with men they became heterosexually immoral. If they worked away from men they became homosexually immoral.

13 See ibid, and Maritch, Sreten, Histoire du monument social sous le Second Empire à Lyon (Paris, 1930)Google Scholar.

14 The term is not an anachronism. See my dissertation, ‘French socialism and women textile workers: a regional study (Lille, Roubaix and Tourcoing) 1880–1914’ (unpublished Ph.D dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1981)Google Scholar; and books cited above.

15 Document found in Freymond, Jacques et al. (eds.), La Première Internationale (Geneva, 1962), II, 38ffGoogle Scholar. Palix is identified in the compte-rendu of the meeting as a tailor.

16 Ibid.

17 Ibid. p. 39.

18 This was arguably the most frequently-quoted description of working women in France. See Michelet, Jules, La Femme (Paris, 1885), pp. 24ffGoogle Scholar. See a contemporary critique of Michelet's views in Crawford, Virginia, ‘Feminism in France’, Fortnightly Review, LXI (1897), 524–34Google Scholar.

19 Quoted in Freymond, , Première Internationale, p. 40Google Scholar.

20 Maritch, , Histoire du mouvement, p. 254Google Scholar.

21 See Le Travailleur, II, 15, 18, 21 Janvier and 18 octobre 1893.

22 It should be noted here that with regard to women Paul Lafargue clung to his earlier Proud honist convictions. His views are detailed in my Working women and socialist politics in France, 1880–1914 (Oxford, 1986)Google Scholar.

23 Proudhon's oft-quoted dictum was that a woman was either a ‘courtisane ou ménagère’. A good recent discussion of his views is in, Moses, Claire Goldberg, French feminism in the nineteenth century (Albany, N.Y., 1984), pp. 151ffGoogle Scholar.

24 See my forthcoming Working women.

25 Figures found in Guilbert, Madeleine, Les Femmes, pp. 30–3Google Scholar.

26 Bouvier, Jeanne, Mes mémoires – ou 59 années d'activité industrielle, sociale, et intellectualle d'une ouvrière (Vienne, 1936), pp. 70–1Google Scholar.

27 See Kaplan, Temma, ‘Women and Spanish anarchism’, in Bridenthal, Renate and Koonz, Claudia (eds.), Becoming visible: women in European history (Boston, 1977), 402–21Google Scholar.

28 This issue is touched upon in Hause, Steven C., with Kenney, Anne R., Women's suffrage and social politics in the French Third Republic (Princeton, 1984)Google Scholar.

29 ‘L'Action syndicale poursuivie – Le meeting de protestation’, L'Action syndicale, 21 avril 1904.

30 ‘Aux femmes’, Voix du peuple, 1–9, décembre 1900.

31 See ‘Dans le Nord’, Voix du peuple, 13–20 avril 1902Google Scholar.

32 This event is discussed in detail in, Sowerwine, Charles, Sisters or citizens? Women and socialism in France since 1876 (Cambridge, 1982), pp. 81–108CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

33 In 1907, English suffragettes visited Paris and their visit was widely reported. See, inter alia, Voix du peuple for 1907, and the socialists' version of events in, Longuet, Jean, 'Les Suffragettes à l'Humanitê, L'Humanité, 18 06 1907Google Scholar, and ‘Féminisme et socialisme. Un entretien avec une “Suffragette”’, ibid., 19 juin 1907. By 1913, the suffragettes had become heroines of the anarchist wing of the CGT, and their activities were reported in La Bataille syndicaliste throughout that year.

34 Yvetot, , ‘Association des femmes’, VdP, 27 août–3 09 1905Google Scholar.

35 Yvetot, , ‘Midinettes et chardons’, VdP, 11–18 09 1910Google Scholar.

36 Yvetot, , ‘Bravo les femmes’, VdP, 3–10 09 1911Google Scholar.

37 Million, , ‘La Femme et l'enfant’, VdP, 21–28 07 1912Google Scholar, and ‘Après la victoire’, La Bataille syndicaliste, 14 mai 1913.

38 Both the male rhetoric and the resulting indifference to the women's needs recalled the ovalistes' reception in 1869. See Dubéros, Raymond, ‘Dix centimes de salaire pour la façon d'un corsage’, VdP, 12–19 février 1905Google Scholar.

39 Capy, , ‘Quelques réflexions’, BS, 20 04 1914Google Scholar.

40 One example of this argument is found in Monnier, L., ‘La Femme esclave’, VdP, 16 03 1913Google Scholar.

41 See Dubéros, Raymond, ‘L'Exploitation’, VdP, 20–27 05 1905Google Scholar; Soyer, Octave, ‘Garderies enfantines – simples réflexions’, VdP, 11–18 août 1912Google Scholar; Laurent, Marcel, ‘L'Enfer des raffineries’, BS, 14 05 1913Google Scholar; and Capy, Marcelle, ‘Les Esclaves de “la Vigneronne”’, BS, 4 09 1913Google Scholar.

42 Nochlin, Linda has analysed these images in a talk, ‘Women in nineteenth-century French painting’, Emory University, 04 1983Google Scholar.

43 The first two quotations are found in Yvetot, , ‘l'Association des femmes’, VdP, 27 août–3 09 1905Google Scholar; the third is in, Yvetot, , ‘Midinettes et chardons’, VdP, 11–18 09 1910Google Scholar.

44 Dumoulin, G., ‘Les Femmes et l'organisation ouvrière’, VdP, 31 août–7 09 1913Google Scholar.

45 See Yvetot, , ‘Association’, VdP, 27 août–3 09 1905Google Scholar, and Million, , ‘La Femme et l'enfant’, VdP, 21–28 07 1912Google Scholar.

46 Baud, , ‘Les Tisseuses de soie dans la région de Vizille’, Le Mouvement soctaliste, tome II (01–06 1908), pp. 418–25Google Scholar.

47 The sequence of events is found in, VdP, 12–19 mai 1907, and in L'Ouvrier textile of the same period.

48 All figures are taken from Madeleine Guilbert, Les Femmes.

49 I cannot underline too strongly the need for more local research. The journal of the national textile federation, L'Ouvrier textile, for example, is replete with references to women's unions in the Gard and the Cevennes. The names of certain key militants also appear frequently. L'Action syndicale likewise offers similar references to women's unions in industries other than textiles. These references support my conviction that many more working women were active in local unions than historians have hitherto been willing to believe.

50 Biais's, first notice of this group is ‘Communications. Le Comité d'action féministe syndicaliste’, YdP, 28 07–4 08 1907Google Scholar.

51 References to the group include the following: ‘La Femme et le syndicalisme’, BS, 5 septembre 1913; ‘Comité féminin – Appel aux femmes’, BS, 14 octobre 1913; ‘Un Appel aux femmes’, BS, 24 octobre 1913; an untitled announcement of a Lyon meeting in BS, 22 novembre 1913. See also, Guillot, Marie, ‘Action syndicale féminine’, VdP, 4–11 Janvier, 11–13 Janvier, 18–25 Janvier 1914Google Scholar; Pellat-Finet, Venise, ‘L'Action syndicate féminine’, VdP, 1–8 févriér 1914Google Scholar; Ratgris, Adrienne, ‘L'Action syndicale chez les femmes’, VdP, 27 04–3 05 1914Google Scholar; and Dumoulin, G., ‘Ligue féminine d'action syndicale’, VdP, 11–17 05 1914Google Scholar.

52 The Couriau affair has been described by many historians, including Guilbert, Madeleine, Les Femmes, and Larsen, Holly, ‘The Couriau Affair’ (unpublished dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1979)Google Scholar.

53 See, inter alia, VdP, 1 août–7 septembre, and 21–28 décembre 1913.

54 Guillot, , ‘Action syndicale féminin’, VdP, 4–11 Janvier, 11–13 Janvier, 18–25 Janvier, 25 01–1 02 1914Google Scholar.

55 L'Humanité, 1 octobre 1913.

56 Guillot, Marie, ‘Au travail’, VdP, 27 04 1914Google Scholar.

57 Bellugue, Fernand, writing in VdP, 6–12 04 1914Google Scholar.

58 The ‘habit of freedom’ is from Pellat-Finet, V., in VdP, 1–8 02 1914Google Scholar. One male syndicalist expressed his fear of women's new militancy in these words: ‘…women invade the workshops, where they wind up becoming conscious of themselves; they want to become men's equals in the domestic, political and economic domains’ Charpillon, S., ‘La Femme à l'atelier’, VdP, 16–22 03 1914Google Scholar.

59 One example is, Soyer, Octave, ‘Garderies enfantines’, VdP, 11–18 août, 18–25 08 1912Google Scholar.

60 Posters are found in, VdP, 28 avril 1912. Others can be seen in later issues of that journal. I discuss the socialists' approach in Working women.

61 It is discussed in Sohn, Anne-Marie, ‘Féminisme et syndicalisme’ (unpublished dissertation, University of Paris-Nanterre, 1973)Google Scholar.