Gender,Class,and Generation in Interwar French Catholicism: The Case of the Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne Féminine

Abstract

This article examines the history of the female branch of the Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne movement during the 1920s and 1930s. Although the largest organization of young working women in France at a time of intense youth mobilization, the Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne Féminine’s (JOCF’s) distinctive nature as a movement of young women has been omitted from historical accounts. This article examines the movement’s approaches to spirituality, activism, work, and femininity and argues that the JOCF had a complicated approach to both young women and femininity. Indeed, it encouraged young working women to adopt Catholic approaches to morality and to prepare for future roles as mothers at the same time as it promoted notions of spiritual equality and encouraged active, independent, public roles in the present.