Histoire/histoires: special issue in honour of claire duchen

Abstract

Claire Duchen died on 15 March 2000 after a long and very brave struggle with ovarian cancer. She died aged 45, but already with an established reputation as a leading scholar of French feminism. As Siân Reynolds wrote in her obituary for The Guardian newspaper, Claire was central to a global network of feminist scholars as a writer, translator, research coordinator, and for over 10 years, from 1987–1997, regional editor for Africa and Europe of Women's Studies International Forum. Her particular areas of specialism, in which she published widely were French Studies, especially French feminisms on which she published two well-known books, Women's Studies, and contemporary French and European Women's History, on which she published her last book this year. 2 2 2. Claire's scholarly contributions include many important articles, chapters, and papers, and four main books. She was instrumental in introducing French feminism to the English-speaking world with her first book, Feminism in France from May 68 to Mitterand (1986). This was followd by French Connections (1987), a book of translated texts showing the full range of French feminist thought. Women's Rights, Women's Lives in France 1944–1968 (1994) demonstrates Claire's growing interest in contemporary history and the post-war period. Her final book, published posthumously in the summer of 2000 was co-edited with Irene Bandhauer-Schöffmann: When the War was Over: Women, War and Peace in Europe 1940–1956 (Leicester University Books, Leicester and New York) and Nach dem Krieg: Frauenleben und Geschlechterkonstruktionen in Europa nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg (Centaurus Verlag, Herbolzheim). She was respected as a scholar and valued as a colleague and a friend by many women and men around the world.