"France Between the Wars" challenges a prevailing assumption that women had little influence or power in France during the interwar period. Sian Reynolds shows how women in fact had both autonomy and authority within the political arena through their activities in social work, peace movements and strikes, and in other areas less directly linked with conventional politics. Reynolds brings together two kinds of history: the political history of France between the wars as it appears in general textbooks, and the work carried out in women's history covering the same period. In doing so she creates a history in which gender contributes in new ways to historical analysis. The book is not, however, concerned exclusively with critical hariography. It is also the result of the author's and others' recent empirical and archival research. As such, it is a book which will appeal to both those studying French history and women's history.

Acknowledgements, Abbreviations, INTRODUCTION: WRITING ABOUT INTER-WAR FRANCE: THE TEXTBOOK AS TEXT, 1 DEMOGRAPHY AND ITS DISCONTENTS, 2 FROM KINDERGARTEN TO YOUTH HOSTEL: GROWING UP BETWEEN THE WARS, 3 'A SLIP OF A GIRL CAN FLY IT': THE FALSE PROMISES OF AVIATION, 4 WHAT DID PEOPLE DO ALL DAY? THE SEXUAL DIVISION OF LABOUR IN FRANCE BETWEEN THE WARS, 5 FROM THE DEPRESSION TO THE STRIKES: OUVRIERS AND OUVRIÈRES, 6 THE TRUCE BETWEEN THE SEXES? THE POLITICS OF SOCIAL INTERVENTION FROM THE GREAT WAR TO THE POPULAR FRONT, 7 THE PERMEABILITY OF PUBLIC LIFE: MAINSTREAM AND ALTERNATIVE POLITICS, 8 WAR AND PEACE: ASSENT AND DISSENT, 9 RIGHTS AND THE REPUBLIC: THE INTER-WAR YEARS AS ANTECHAMBER TO DEMOCRACY?, CONCLUSION, Notes, Sources and bibliography, Chronology, Index