La Guerre en dentelles: Women and the Prix de Rome in French Cultural Politics

Abstract

In 1903, one hundred years after the Prix de Rome had been created in music composition, women were allowed to participate in the competition for the first time. In 1913, Lili Boulanger became the first woman to win the prize, crowning the efforts of three others-Juliette Toutain, Hélène Fleury, and Nadia Boulanger-to achieve this goal. Their stories are fascinating case studies of the strategies women employed to achieve success and public recognition within the complex framework of French cultural politics at the beginning of the twentieth century.