Ressource pédagogique : Sara Kimble - Women’s Rights and the Rights of Man: Women’s Status under Law as the Measure of Civilization in Political and Legal Discourse, 1869-1914

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This paper explores the conceptualization of women’s rights as a measure of the advancement of societies in comparative perspective through political and legal discourse from the 1860s to 1914. My investigation focuses on French perceptions of Anglo-American reforms in the areas of women’s political rights, educational opportunities, and professional employment to understand the power and limitations of these debates. Prompted by Charles Fourier’s proclamation that “l’extension des privilèges des femmes est le principe general de tous les progrès sociaux,” (Théorie des quatre mouvements), myriad politico-legal thinkers in France observed the progressive advancements for women in family and property law in England, and political rights and access to the jury in the American West, as a challenge and a tocsin that French society compared poorly on women’s emancipation. Advocates of women’s rights seized on the international comparisons to argue for reform of women’s rights, to fulfil the promise of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen by extending the rights and duties to women. Women’s emancipation, especially in public and constitutional law, was coded as “modern” and “civilized,” a sign of the triumph of justice over “barbarism” and other antiquated forms of government. This research examines ways in which the attainment of gender equality in law functioned as a marker of the degree of civilization operating within a nation-state, a reflection of the “soft” diplomacy of international relations.  

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• Droit international (341)

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