Solidarity or Suspicion: Gender, Enfranchisement, and Popular Culture in Liberation France

Women were enfranchised in France in 1944, a generation after most western countries and in the context of great tumult at the end of WWII. Given this, it is fair to wonder if this represented possible gender equality. The article asks whether enfranchisement was “liberating” for French women. In response, it takes a wide look at the culture of postwar France—specifically emphasizing women’s magazines. A deep reading of these magazines reveals a message of anti-solidarity, that women could not trust each other. This theme echoes those of other publications, in which commentators feared the influence women would have if they banded together. An examination of culture and gender ultimately reveals that Charles de Gaulle’s granting of the vote was not intended to revolutionize women’s roles in France. Rather he and other politicians desired to bring France in line with the other Great Powers in the West and justify France’s presence as an important nation.