Female Suffrage and Gender Politics in France.
Ades, Anika R.
2014
- Abstract: In the industrialized world, states with large Catholic populations have enfranchised women on average 20-30 years later than states that are predominantly Protestant. The prevailing explanation for this phenomenon is largely cultural; Catholic doctrine creates strictly traditional roles for women and creates a culture of female oppression. This paper will show that in the French example, ... read morethe delay in suffrage was actually caused by the parties of the Left who feared that the mass influx of highly religious and very conservative female voters would upset the fragile framework of the French government and would increase the political power of conservative parties. Conversely, the Catholic Church and Catholic Parties were the strongest supporters of the female vote because women tended to align themselves with the policies and parties of the Church. This resulted in a paradox in which the Catholic Church was the strongest supporter of female suffrage, and the ideologically progressive Leftist parties worked to suppress the female vote. Following female enfranchisement in 1944 under Charles de Gaulle, women were indeed more conservative and more religious voters than men. From the 1960s through the present, however, women have become dramatically less religious, and have accordingly shifted in ideology from the Right to the Left. This ideological shift coincides with increased female participation in the workforce and union membership, secularization and modernization of French society and economy, but ultimately is rooted in increased access to higher education amongst women in France.read less
- ID:
- pc289w59c
- Component ID:
- tufts:sd.0000121
- To Cite:
- TARC Citation Guide EndNote
