Paternity and the Politics of Citizenship in Interwar France

Abstract

Fathers have been neglected in the historiography of gender, social reform, and citizenship in France. In the interwar years, fathers’ rights and responsibilities became key issues in the discourse surrounding the reduction of working hours and the politics of suffrage reform. Fathers figured largely in the aspirations of ideologically opposed groups and symbolized a competition for resources within the nascentwelfare state. Social reformers argued formore privileges or better living conditions for the père de famille, who represented the ideal citizen in the efforts at postwar reconstruction.