Integrating Women and Gender into the Teaching of French History, 1789 to the Present

Abstract

Whether one teaches a seminar on the French Revolution or on Vichy, or a survey course on modern France to three hundred students, the challenge to integrate any new subfield is daunting because of the obvious limits on time and space in a syllabus; to incorporate new material other topics or reading assignments might have to be eliminated, a brutal reality that has fed the ongoing ‘‘culture wars’’ in academia. The purpose of this essay is twofold: first, to persuade those who have not taught gender of its centrality in understanding modern France; and second, to suggest ways of integrating gender into topics usually taught in a survey or in more narrowly defined specialized courses. My approach is also twofold: on the one hand, I suggest here a new periodization for modern France that is based on the fruit that scholarship in women’s and gender history has borne during the past twenty-five years; on the other, I also follow the standard textbook chronology of major events and regimes so that instructors can choose readings without having to reformulate an entire syllabus. Thus my intent is not to propose a specific syllabus but to suggest ways to enhance parts of existing courses and to suggest new ways of thinking about French history for those who do wish to revamp their courses. The argument implicit in this essay is that the course of French history is closely linked to the history of gender. French gender identity, while having a good deal in common with other modernizing countries, also has its particularities, and being aware of them helps us better Elinor Accampo is associate professor of history at the University of Southern California. She is working on a book-length biography of feminist and birth-control advocate Nelly Roussel (1878– 1922), tentatively titled ‘‘Blessed Motherhood, Bitter Fruit: Nelly Roussel and the Politics of Female Pain in Third Republic France.’’ The author wishes to thank the anonymous reviewers of French Historical Studies, whose suggestions for rewriting this article, particularly with regard to rethinking the periodization, were inspirational and invaluable.