The Fight for Women's Rights

The Belle Époque witnessed an unprecedented mobilization for women's rights, though France lagged behind Britain and America in granting suffrage. French feminism developed its own character, shaped by republican ideals, Catholic opposition, and the peculiar French notion that women already ruled through "influence" rather than votes.

Hubertine Auclert pioneered French suffragism with tactics that scandalized even sympathizers. In 1880, she refused to pay taxes, declaring "no taxation without representation." When census takers arrived, she demanded they list her profession as "slave" since she lacked political rights. Her newspaper, La Citoyenne, reached thousands of women hungry for change.

The movement split between reformists and radicals. Marguerite Durand, former actress turned activist, founded La Fronde in 1897—a daily newspaper entirely produced by women. From typesetters to editors, every position was female. The paper covered politics, arts, and social issues from women's perspectives, proving female competence in traditionally male professions.

"We must be impeccable," Durand told her staff. "Every mistake will be blamed on our sex." La Fronde's success—it lasted until 1905—demonstrated women's capabilities while revealing the exhausting perfectionism marginalized groups must maintain.

Working-class feminism took different forms. The flower-makers' strike of 1906 showed women's growing labor consciousness. These workers, who created artificial flowers for hats and dresses, earned starvation wages for delicate work that destroyed their eyesight. When they struck, bourgeois feminists supported them, creating rare cross-class solidarity.

Marie Bonnevial, a schoolteacher fired for union activism, connected feminism to broader liberation: "The woman question is inseparable from the social question. We cannot free ourselves alone—we must free everyone." Her synthesis of feminism and socialism influenced a generation of activists.