| Abstract |
French government so much emphasized the natalism and the traditional role of women after the First World War that it was unwilling to promote women’s social and political status, which resulted in the negative impact on the acquirement of women’s suffrage. But many feminine suffragists strongly and continuously protested so much against the Parliament and the Executive departments during the period between the two world wars that the public opinions gradually switched to support their demands. The Second World War collapsed the Third Republic and the conservative forces in the Senate which had strongly opposed women’s suffrage for a long time. At the beginning of the Second World War, the Vichy regime carried out some conservative policies emphasizing the traditional values. Nevertheless, by the end of the Second World War, when French government was re-constructed, in order to distinguish the new government from the Third Republic, to open a new political situation and to follow the public opinions, the Temporary Consultative Assembly and the Temporary Government decided in 1944 to pass and publicize the edict giving suffrage to French women. |
