Staff View
Between war and revolution: French women and the sexual practices of everyday life, 1952-1967

Descriptive

TypeOfResource
Text
TitleInfo
Title
Between war and revolution: French women and the sexual practices of everyday life, 1952-1967
Identifier (type = hdl)
http://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.2/rucore10001600001.ETD.17024
Identifier
ETD_963
Identifier (type = doi)
doi:10.7282/T33F4Q15
Language
LanguageTerm (authority = ISO 639-3:2007); (type = text)
English
Genre (authority = marcgt)
theses
Subject (authority = RUETD)
Topic
History
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Women--France--Sexual behavior
Abstract (type = abstract)
French women of all classes made everyday decisions in the postwar period in an effort to preserve their personal and sexual autonomy. They wrote letters to journals and papers, they read the works of scientists, doctors, and other women like themselves; they formed networks; they fought to free themselves from the bonds of sexual slavery; they found abortionists either clandestinely in France or abroad; and they fought for and obtained the right to family planning and the right to control their own bodies and lives.
This project sheds light on the debates over sex, the activism surrounding sex, and the experiences of sex, all of which remain unexplored in the historiography of the immediate postwar years. Whereas many historians consider the postwar, pre-revolutionary period as one of "silence" regarding sexual and personal freedoms, the sources I have located indicate that women in fact actively created many key debates over fertility, sexuality, and sexual freedom that raged in this postwar environment.
My thesis overturns the traditional view that students were the catalyst provoking revolution in May of 1968, by showing that women's struggles to control their own bodies and sexualities lay the groundwork for more radical rebellion in a conservative post-war world, in the two decades prior to 1968. This project proposes a paradigm shift that changes the definition and periodization of the "sexual revolution." Although there occurred a well-documented explosion of conversation and group formation based on identity politics after 1968 that has been described as a "sexual revolution," this older definition ignores the actions of women in the two earlier decades. These women's efforts successfully culminated in the Loi Neuwirth of 1967, both legalizing contraception and implementing a program of sexual education in French schools--a full six months before students and workers erupted in protest in May of 1968. French women's everyday resistances to the conservative and traditional postwar social order paved the road to revolution, however this study will also explore the complications and contradictions inherent in the complex postwar sexual world in which these women lived, loved, and agitated.
PhysicalDescription
Extent
vii, 435 pages
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Note (type = degree)
Ph.D.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references (p. 415-432).
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Kreisel
NamePart (type = given)
Cynthia Sharrer
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
author
DisplayForm
Cynthia Sharrer Kreisel
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Smith
NamePart (type = given)
Bonnie
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
chair
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
DisplayForm
Bonnie G. Smith
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Davis
NamePart (type = given)
Belinda
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
internal member
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
DisplayForm
Belinda Davis
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Kaplan
NamePart (type = given)
Temma
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
internal member
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
DisplayForm
Temma Kaplan
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Wall
NamePart (type = given)
Irwin
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
outside member
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
DisplayForm
Irwin Wall
Name (type = corporate)
NamePart
Rutgers University
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
degree grantor
Name (type = corporate)
NamePart
Graduate School - New Brunswick
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
school
OriginInfo
DateCreated (qualifier = exact)
2008
DateOther (qualifier = exact); (type = degree)
2008-05
Location
PhysicalLocation (authority = marcorg)
NjNbRU
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Graduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore19991600001
Subject (authority = lcsh/lcnaf)
Geographic
France
Genre (authority = ExL-Esploro)
ETD doctoral
Back to the top

Rights

RightsDeclaration (AUTHORITY = GS); (ID = rulibRdec0006)
The author owns the copyright to this work.
Copyright
Status
Copyright protected
Availability
Status
Open
AssociatedEntity (AUTHORITY = rulib); (ID = 1)
Name
Cynthia Kreisel
Role
Copyright holder
Affiliation
Rutgers University. Graduate School - New Brunswick
RightsEvent (AUTHORITY = rulib); (ID = 1)
Type
Permission or license
Detail
Non-exclusive ETD license
AssociatedObject (AUTHORITY = rulib); (ID = 1)
Type
License
Name
Author Agreement License
Detail
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.
Back to the top

Technical

Format (TYPE = mime); (VERSION = )
application/x-tar
FileSize (UNIT = bytes)
1861120
Checksum (METHOD = SHA1)
7959a49e702a1ea6f4a606188d0594ade6b7545e
ContentModel
ETD
CompressionScheme
other
OperatingSystem (VERSION = 5.1)
windows xp
Format (TYPE = mime); (VERSION = NULL)
application/x-tar
Back to the top
Version 8.5.5
Rutgers University Libraries - Copyright ©2024