French Women and the Global Fight for Faith: Catholic International Religious Outreach in Turn-of-the-Century France

In the years before World War I, French Catholic women played a critical role in facilitating cooperation among Catholic women globally to solve problems such as poverty, class conflict, and religious disaffection. French Catholic women created international religious organizations and developed correspondence networks among Catholic women throughout the world. French Catholic women’s international programs allowed the French Catholic community to demonstrate its vitality at a time when religion seemed threatened by secularism. International faith-based engagement also opened up leadership opportunities for Catholic women, and it promoted women’s equality in the political and religious realms.