In: Engendering the Past, 1 (2018), Nr. 1. S. 66-77. ISSN 2700-1415

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Abstract

This article analyses the writings and lives of Jeanne Deroin and Jenny P. d’Héricourt as examples of the notions of reproduction and motherhood, gendered citizenship and suffrage in nineteenth century feminism in France. Relating each to canonical male thinkers, historiography has failed to view Deroin and d’Héricourt together and to take them seriously as thinkers in their own right. Therefore, this article uses the concepts of gendered agency and reverse discourse to look at the relation between Deroin’s and d’Hércourt’s individual gendered experience and their feminist aims. Their example demonstrates that the discourse of suffrage and citizenship in nineteenth century France was inherently gendered; concomitantly gendered experience was linked to the discursive power relations. This reveals why it was possible and necessary for feminists to relate to the dominant discourse of sexual difference to articulate their feminist demands. It justified the need for women’s citizenship, suffrage and equal rights by positively reevaluating women’s qualities connected to motherhood and sentiment; and viewing reproduction as the fulfilment of a citizen’s duty to be rewarded with citizenship.