Prominent French men of letters began to claim that the student body at the acting Conservatory, which bore a morally dubious reputation, was becoming more bourgeois than ever before as the nineteenth century ended. They interpreted the entry of the bourgeoisie as one more manifestation of national decay. In fact, the major shift in recruitment was the growing number of women from respectable, bourgeois backgrounds. The new pattern signalled an expansion in women's autonomy as individuals. Thus, the writers' pessimism obscured the fact that the early Third Republic was keeping some of its democratic promises. The findings indicate that a reassessment of France's capacity for progressive cultural change in the fin de siècle is in order.