A gendered history of the women’s suffrage movement

Adopting a gender perspective, this article traces the evolution of the women’s suffrage movement within the broader landscape of French feminist movements from the late 19th century to the 1930s. By focusing on gender relations within activist groups, it demonstrates that the issue of women’s political rights gave rise to the first demands for female autonomy in mixed-gender feminist groups at the end of the 19th century. Likewise, women’s growing role in the struggle for their own emancipation helped to disseminate suffragist demands throughout feminist movements during the early 20th century.