Important consequences of World War II on the lives of French women. The war impacted the lives of French women in every conceivable way, from work to the domestic front. With the fall of France in June 1940, many women had lost husbands and loved ones, and were forced to take control of their own lives. In addition, the new government of Vichy inaugurated a moral revolution, which deeply affected women.
Women in France worked in virtually every sphere of the economy. They were mobilized in 1939 after the outbreak of war to work in factories to contribute to the war effort and to replace the men who had gone off to the front. Before the fall of France the major employer of women was the state, in particular the Ministry of Defense. Wives of soldiers were given priority for employment because their families were left without a breadwinner. A law passed on February 29, 1940, made female labor in certain professions, administrations, and companies obligatory for the duration of the hostilities (Diamond 1999, 30). Women, both skilled and unskilled, were employed in large numbers in armament factories throughout the country. While the armaments industry flourished, that of textiles deteriorated, putting female textile workers into the ranks of the unemployed. However, new jobs were created for women in other sectors of the economy. These included replacing men in the postal service.
With the fall of France in June 1940, the country entered a period of chaos. The country was divided into two zones: the Vichy administered center and southeast and the occupied zone in the north and along the Atlantic controlled by the Germans. Defense industries were closed and unemployment levels rose. Immediately following the fall of France, the new Vichy regime implemented a campaign to strengthen the family and increase the birth rate. The femme au foyer or mistress of the home was glorified. "Work, Family and Nation," the Vichy slogan, which replaced the revolutionary motto of "Liberty, Equality and Fraternity," took on special meaning for women. Domestic Revolution is a term employed by one scholar describing the National Revolution, which was implemented by the Vichy government in 1940. France’s declining birth rate was held to be both a symptom and a cause of national decadence. Because of their vanity, selfishness, loose morals, and consumerism, women were held to be partially responsible for the defeat. They had neglected their most important role of wife and mother. To be a woman meant to be a wife, a mother, and a teacher. The institutionalization of the female role as a mother took place on May 31, 1942, when an official Mothers Day became a national holiday. Posters extolled the virtues of motherhood. These included duty and sacrifice (Pollard 1998, 45-48).
Gender roles were clearly demarcated at a young age. Both male and female identities were reconstructed. From 1942, young girls were taught domestic skills at school in order to prepare them for their future role as wives and mothers while boys were given physical education. Professional training for girls at the youth centers included learning how to sew and other household tasks while boys were sent to work camps to prepare for war. In spite of the official ideology of the femme au foyer, the realities of war and occupation made it difficult to enforce.
With male unemployment spiraling and the new ideology ubiquitous, women were laid off from their places of employment, but were given several months pay. New legislation, which underscored official Vichy ideology of fatherland, work, and family was implemented. This was the Married Women’s Work act passed on October 11, 1940. Married women were no longer permitted to work outside the home if their spouses could provide for the family. The retirement age for women was set at fifty (Diamond 1999, 32-33). However, as war demands on the economy grew throughout the autumn and winter of 1940-1941, the government decided to abandon the new legislation and replace it with yet another law on September 12, 1942. The government argued that due to new circumstances the Married Women’s Work act would have to be cancelled. Married women were now permitted to work in all sections of the economy where they were needed. Labor shortages were serious enough to introduce emergency measures to employ more women. Teenagers aged fourteen to nineteen were also employed. Women were even taken on in the police force. Vichy established a special Corps des Surveillantes Auxil-iares (Corps of Auxiliary Inspectors) of women. In fact, by the time the Germans occupied the entire country in November of 1942, there was a severe shortage of male workers.
Although the Catholic Church in France voiced its disapproval of women working for the Germans, this did not prevent the Vichy government from passing legislation in February and March, 1944, which specified that women from ages eighteen to forty-five, both single and married without children could work near their homes and that work previously done by men could now be carried out by women (Diamond 1999, 37). Women worked in various capacities for the Germans: as cleaners, housekeepers, cooks, and laundresses. Others worked as secretaries, translators, and telephone operators. Due to the fact that they were well paid, much better than those working for the French, most women who worked for the Germans did so without compulsion (Burrin 1995, 288). Women who worked for the Germans also received perks such as access to German cafeterias and goods unavailable to most French people (Cobb 1983, 105).
Women also were employed by the Germans in the entertainment industry during the war. They worked in the theater, ballet, opera, and nightclubs. Edith Piaf is a famous example of a singer working in this business. Some worked in France, while others went on tour to Germany. More women worked for the Germans in the northern zone.
Numbers of women practicing prostitution rose notably during the war. Both the Germans and the Vichy government attempted to regulate the profession: the tolerated brothel of the past acquired official status and was considered like any other business. No Jews or Blacks could be prostitutes and condom use was enforced to protect the Germans from disease. One expert, citing German authorities, maintains that 80,000 to 100,000 women in Paris were engaged in this trade and that 5,000 to 6,000 women carried a bilingual card. Soldiers would receive a card indicating the name of the brothel, the date of the meeting, and the name of the woman. Most women, however, worked on the streets. Figures of 100,000 on the streets to 2,000 in brothels are cited for Paris in 1940 (Burrin 1995, 210-211).
No discussion of women and work during the war would be complete without mentioning agriculture. Similar to their predecessors in World War I, wives once again took over the family farm when their husbands went off to war. However, their burden was often lessened with the help of neighbors, male relatives and villagers too old to serve in the army, and refugees. Peasant women were the epitome of the ideal Vichy woman.
Women in all walks of life, whether they remained at home or were in the labor force, still had to worry about feeding their families and carrying out the chores in the household. Food and other necessities were rationed from September 1940. Women were issued ration cards and were forced to stand in long queues each day to obtain provisions. As necessities became scarcer and women increasingly frustrated, they began to protest in front of town halls and prefect offices for more bread and milk for their families.
Childcare was also an important concern for women, particularly those who worked outside the home. Day care facilities, which had been in existence before the war, continued during the war, but these were limited. For the most part, women had to rely on personal arrangements with relatives to take care of children.
