Historie du travail des femmes. Françoise Battagliola [Texto en inglés]

Manuel J. Peláez
María del Carmen Amaya Galván

Abstract

This a summary book by Françoise Battagliola on the history of women’s work in France during the XIXth and XXth centuries, which virtually focuses on the third, fourth and fifth Republics. The author’s approach is mainly sociological. She believes French women’s schooling and, then, their access to almost all university studies has led to a noticeable change in women’s intellectual work. However, she thinks there are still essentially feminine professions while others are mostly male.

Key words: Women’s Work, Family Life, Working Population, Feminist Policies, Pierre Joseph Proudhon, Olympe de Gouges, Inequality, University Women, Social Catholicism, Feminization of Employment, Feminist Unionism.

Texto

This book by the French sociologist Françoise Battagliola is included in the “Repères” summary collection, where a large number of books on Labour Sociology, Social Policy, History of Feminism, Gender Violence, and other related topics have been published. Its title does not relate entirely to the book contents since we are faced with a study on women’s work evolution in France from the beginning of the second half of the XIXth century until the beginning of the XXIst century, even though very elementary previous historical comments can be found in pp. 8-12. Since 1984, the author has been conducting research on women’s work, the relations between the sexes, the difference between the wife’s housework and that of the concubine’s, and women’s career path throughout history. Battagliola always focuses on contemporary history.

Nevertheless, it is surprising how Françoise Battagliola, as opposed to other French scholars, not only follows her country’s doctrine but she also echoes research on gender carried out in England and the United States, while, at the same time, she does not mention any Italian, German or Spanish researchers.

Battagliola’s main criticism towards women’s work is the fact that historiography is a science written by men and, consequently, this has led to an underestimation of the jobs performed by women.

The conclusion that may be reached at the end of Françoise Battagliola’s book is that women’s working life in France, during the XIXth and XXth centuries, has been full of frequent inequality, contradictions and paradoxes while, at the same time, there has been considerable progress in terms of women’s social and professional dignity.

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