Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part 1 Defining a feminine sphere of action, 1830-1914
- 1 Public roles for maternal authority: the introduction of inspectresses, 1830-1870
- 2 Educating a new democracy: school inspectresses and the Third Republic
- 3 Addressing crime, poverty, and depopulation: the Interior ministry inspectresses
- 4 Protecting women workers: the Labor administration
- Part 2 Steps toward equality: women's administrative careers since the First World War
- Select bibliography
- Index
1 - Public roles for maternal authority: the introduction of inspectresses, 1830-1870
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part 1 Defining a feminine sphere of action, 1830-1914
- 1 Public roles for maternal authority: the introduction of inspectresses, 1830-1870
- 2 Educating a new democracy: school inspectresses and the Third Republic
- 3 Addressing crime, poverty, and depopulation: the Interior ministry inspectresses
- 4 Protecting women workers: the Labor administration
- Part 2 Steps toward equality: women's administrative careers since the First World War
- Select bibliography
- Index
Summary
The inspection of nursery schools (salles d'asile) can be done usefully and correctly only by women … Inspectresses will intimidate less and will persuade more readily than men can.
Eugénie Chevreau-Lemercier (1848)Madame Chevreau-Lemercier's appointment as the first national nursery school inspectress in 1837 was but one part of the July Monarchy's larger effort to address a host of social, economic, and political problems which might drive the populace to unruly behavior. Schools were a central concern of the government of King LouisPhilippe, the Orleanist installed after Parisian crowds doomed the second Bourbon Restoration king, Charles X, in July 1830. Education minister François Guizot sponsored the law of 28 June 1833, often dubbed the “charter of primary education” because it required each commune to provide a public primary school. Four years later Salvandy issued official guidelines for a newer institution which combined educational and charitable functions, the salle d'asile or nursery school. Each measure demonstrated the importance attached to education in a country facing not only the continuing problem of adjusting its political system to the ideals of liberty and equality enshrined by the Revolution of 1789 but also the substantial changes resulting from industrialization and urbanization in some areas. Schools could benefit both employers and workers in an economy where reading and writing seemed more useful than during an agrarian past.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Rise of Professional Women in FranceGender and Public Administration since 1830, pp. 11 - 39Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000