CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2014
| Author | Stephens, Lauren Maria |
|---|---|
| Title | 'International' Feminism? International Women's Rights Congresses at the Paris World Exhibitions, 1878 - 1900 |
| Summary | The 1878 International Congress of the Rights of Women, the 1889 French and International Congress of the Rights of Women and the 1900 International Congress of the Condition and Rights of Women took place during the third, fourth and fifth World Exhibitions held in Paris. Their organisers combined a trend for international social movements with a new way to address the priorities of the French women’s movement. This thesis is based upon a close analytical reading of the discussions and resolutions of each of these congresses and their reports in contemporary newspapers Le Figaro, Le Gaulois, Journal des Débats Politiques et Littéraires and La Presse. It seeks to interpret the feminism articulated by contributors and organisers of these congresses within their context as features of a new internationalist fashion during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. This thesis argues, firstly, that the organisers of these events sought to use the new fashion for international social movements to highlight the validity of their claims for women’s rights. This was intended to help convince French politicians, intellectuals and writers of the need for legal changes in women’s status. Secondly, in discussing women in an international context, they based their views upon a universal image of ‘woman’, which was largely race- and class-blind, and used their superiority as Western, middle-class campaigners to make claims on behalf of the whole world. Finally, the French participants also made a case for feminism in France on the basis of a nationalist discourse, which asserted that France had a natural and historical affinity with human rights. |
| Supervisor | de Haan, Francisca |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2014/stephens_lauren.pdf |
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