'One finishes reading Offen's books in deep gratitude for the monumental labor that she invested in writing them. Thanks to the author's sustained, forthright pursuit of this new narrative in French history, many more topics now deserve further study … what elements of France's specificity in the contested woman question contributed to the country's slow, troubled modernization? What role, if any, did the debate have in France's overseas territories where race and ethnicity were also at play, especially in the interwar period? Such queries naturally arise from Offen's magisterial work, its shrewd insights and compelling detail …' James Smith Allen, The Journal of Modern History
General introduction: 'what do women want?' and quotations; Part I. Familiarization: Romance with the Republic, 1870s–1889: 1. Relaunching the Republican campaign for women's rights: 2. Educators, medical and social scientists, and population experts debate the woman question, 1870–1889; 3: The politics of the family, women's work, and public morality, 1870–1890; 4. The revolutionary centennial: promoting women and women's rights at the 1889 International Exposition in Paris; Part II. Encounter: the Third Republic Faces Feminist Claims, 1890–1900: Quotations and introductory remarks; 5. The birth and 'take-off' of feminism in republican France; 6: Rights or protection for working women?; 7. Must maternity be women's form of patriotism? 8. The new century greets the woman question, 1900; Part III. Climax: Mainstreaming the Woman Question, 1901–1914: Quotations and introductory remarks; 9. Building a force to reckon with the Republic: The Conseil National des Femmes Françaises and its allies, 1900–1914; 10. Defining, historicizing, contesting, and defending feminism: early 20th century developments; 11. Refocusing the state: depopulation, maternity, and the quest for a woman-friendly state; 12. Emerging labor issues: equal pay for equal work, travail à domicile, and women's right to work; 13. 'The alpha and omega of our demands' – the women's suffrage campaigns heat up, 1906–1914; Part IV. Anti-Climax: the Great War and its Aftermath: Quotations and introductory remarks; 14. The Great War and the woman question; 15. 'Half the human race': epilogue and conclusion; Afterword; Appendix: important dates for the woman question debates; Index.