Gendering French History: The Significance of Karen Offen's Books on the Woman Question

Abstract

A roundtable discussion of Karen Offen's The Woman Question in France, 1400-1870 and Debating the Woman Question in the French Third Republic, 1870-1920 (published by Cambridge University Press in 2017 and 2018, respectively). Participants in the roundtable address a range of issues, particular and general. How has Offen enlarged historians’ understanding of debates on women’s roles in French culture, the family, and work, and the interrelatedness of such debates? Why were biomedical issues and educational issues also political issues? What was distinctive about the French debate on the woman question, as compared to that in other countries, and what was distinctive about French feminism? What are the implications of Offen’s work for the traditional general narrative of French history? The roundtable closes with a response from Offen.