Contenu du sommaire : Résistances et Libérations France 1940-1945

Rita Thalmann : The Forgetting of Women in Resistance Historiography Women in the Resistance are largely absent in the historiography of the years 1940-1944, despite the fact that Colonel Rol-Tanguy declared at the Liberation that « without (women), half our work could not have be done », and despite that women got the vote in 1944 (years after women in other democratic countries). Given their origins and their status in French society, however, the missions women undertook and their commitment to the cause were no less risky than those undertaken by their male companions. The persistent silence concerning women in the Resistance can be traced to two main causes : 1) the devalorisation of theirs roles, which are relegated to a secondary and complementary position next to men's armed services 2) the way the Resistance was « nationalized » after the fact has contributed to silencing the important contributions of foreigners or of foreign born persons in the liberation of France

Hélène Chaubin : Women in the Resistance in Southern France By their involvement in the resistance, the women of the Mediterranean proved their civic and political awareness wich one might have thought in contradiction with local cultural traditions. But within this geographical region, a considerable variety exists in women's lives and in the missions and risks undertaken by the resistance workers : a comparison of areas like the Languedoc and Corsica shows that their motives and jobs were significantly different, and provides two examples of the sexual hierarchy within the southern french resistance movement.

Marie-France Brive : Women Resistors and the Resistance Originally conceived as a film project based on the testimony of women in the Resistance, this text offers a new approach to the Resistance wich is generally perceived as a military operation and a martyrdom. By illustrating how private issues helped construct the political sphere, this essay also considers how joyful practices existed among men and women in the Resistance. In this fashion, the author underlines the way women produces spaces of liberty.

Paula Schwartz : Gender Differences in the Resistance Gender is a category of analysis which enables us to « see » the French Resistance in news ways. From the role of women in the movement to the social construction of so-called « male » and female » behavior : questions and approaches pertaining to the study of women in the French Resistance have evolved in the half-century since the close of the Second World War. The gendered nature of political roles, strategies, and memory of resistance derives in large part from the gendered universe in which men and women lived their daily lives. Persistent conceptual and epistemological problems, such as the definition of « resistance », and the universaling category of « women », continue to affect what and how we see.

Hanna Diamond : The experience of women in Toulouse The gaining of the right to vote in april 1944, and their active participation in the Resistance seemed to mark the beginning of something new for French women. This study of the everiday life of women in Toulouse during and after the war - using written and oral sources - shows how the post war years, bringing the return of the men, the re-establishment of traditional party politics and normal daily life, pushed most women back into theitr pre-war position in the home. It would seem that, paradoxically, the circumstances of the war created new possibilities for women. They had access to a certain autonomy, became aware of their professionnal capacities, took on new responsabilities and made political choices for the first time.

Fabrice Virgili : The « tondues » during the Liberation Altough the « femme tondue » (woman whose head was shaved for alleged collaboration) is a powerful image of the Liberation, few studies have analysed this issue. This practice was common and widespread on French territory in 1944 and 1945. During these headshaving incidents, women's bodies were actually put on display as a means of atonement. Beyond illustrating how thepublic took the law into its own hands, however, the description of « public shaving » reflects during this period how unclear the lines were between public and private life. This theatrical public display opened the way to fantasy and sexuality. Symbolically headshaving eoisodes represented the  « sin » - collaboration -, the « punishment » - purification -, and finally a « vision of the future » - the reconstruction. This study allows us to understand why these episodes occured, as well as the underlying stakes in the reappropriation of the bodies of the « tondue », specifically, and of women's bodies, in general.

Françoise Leclerc et Michèle Weindling : Punishing Women Guilty of Collaboration Officially the post-war purge records do not mention the gender distribution of culprits sentenced after the Liberation. Yet, by january 1, 1946, 6091 women were being held in French jails for collaboration (21% of all sentenced former collaborationists), representing 54% of all female prisoners. Such statistics force us to rethink acts of female collaboration above and beyond the framework of « collaborationist sex », even thoug certain courts admittedly viewed this as active intelligence with the ennemy. The history of women must go beyond rehabilitative interpretations and seek to render visible and to analyse the accusations made against these women as well to understand the motives which animated them.

Claire Duchen : New woman for a new France ?This article considers the experiences of women in France after the Liberation, taking as a starting point the notion that a new woman might emerge from the war. The article discusses the three roles attributed to women (citizen, worker and mother) and explores the way in which the three discourses seemed to work to limit and circumscribe women's lives and potential. The changes that become visible in women's lives only appear later in the 1960s ; the years of the liberation were years in which women's hopes were consistently disappointed.

William Guéraiche : The commitment of women in politics, 1944-1947 Should we be judging the commitment of women in politics in the years just after the war by the standards of two hundred years of irregular activism or by the present situation of our elected officials and other leaders ? This dialectic allows us to understand better the sense of French women's involvement in governement affairs immediately after the war. How can we understand the term « Liberation » ? Is it only a decisive period in the history of our institutions and/or a state of grâce that allowed a better redistribution of power ? All the events which followed the Normandy landing up to the establishment of the Fourth Republic tend to show that power was more equally shared between the sexes but that the Liberation didn't lead to radical changes in the structure of our political institutions.