National Politics and Transnational Feminisms in Early Twentieth-Century Europe: Perspectives from the Francophone Sphere

Abstract

This chapter explores the strategies used by a diverse group of French-speaking women and men, proponents of expanded citizenship for women, to create common ground among emerging national feminisms at the turn of the twentieth century. This specific effort to ‘transnationalize’ so-called first-wave feminism, I will argue here, can be seen as an example of what anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss identified as bricolage, of a conceptual as well as practical nature: that is, a strategically improvised mobilization and repurposing of existing intellectual networks, actions, expertise, and of course, ideas. At a time when both nationalism and internationalism were at a height, the rise of so-called first-wave feminisms benefited from the expansion of gender-inclusive intellectual networks and international political and cultural spaces—such as Universal Expositions, scientific and cultural associations, and political movements—that encouraged knowledge exchange and practical cooperation across borders. Focusing on the French-speaking sphere (a language that continued to be widely spoken by educated elites at the time), I look at how national politics, shared values and social ideals, and the recognition of expertise across borders conditioned the incorporation of nation-specific information about women and gender within evolving feminist discourses.

Parts of this chapter were originally presented in a session on ‘European Feminists’ International Cooperation, Late 19th–Early 20th Centuries: Limits, Meanings, Outcomes at the 12th Berkshire Conference on the History of Women in 2002. I am grateful to the audience and session participants for their invaluable feedback on that presentation.