From ‘Generation Auclert’ to ‘Generation Ockrent’: Convictions, Comparisons and Continuities

Abstract

Working within the framework of Mannheim's analysis of the notion of generations, this article takes two women trailblazers, Hubertine Auclert (1848–1914) and Christine Ockrent (1944–), and situates them within their own generations, but also illustrates the confluence and contradictions as their lives and work are examined across the divide of approximately a century. It proceeds to evaluate their careers as journalists alongside their engagement, or non-engagement, with the feminist Zeitgeist of their respective times, first in the context of citizenship, secondly in relation to their respective career aspirations and ‘rayonnement’, and thirdly with regard to the implication of their location in societal and gender terms. It concludes by contrasting the two women's media impact and approach to feminism: whereas Auclert was a pioneer using her newspaper La Citoyenne as a vehicle for suffragist feminism, Ockrent has been an iconic figure for the advancement of a new generation of women multi-media journalists.