From Medical Feminism to Conservatism? Changing French Attitudes Towards Women Doctors and their Views on the Female Body: The Reception of Woman as Family Doctor between 1905 and the 1920s

What is it about?

This article examines the contrasting reception of the book Women as Family Doctor in France between 1905 and the 1920s. The book was an international bestseller, written by Dr Anna Fischer-Dückelmann, one of the first female doctors of the modern era. When the book was first translated from German into French in 1905, it was well received. In 1911 it even won a prize at a state-sponsored exhibition. But its republication in 1922 caused a sudden outcry. Drawing on a wide range of sources, this paper shows that this reversal reflected changing attitudes towards women doctors. During the Belle Époque, the French authorities had been proud of their 'medical feminism' and their support for books such as Women as Family Doctor, which argued that women should have more control over their bodies, especially sexually. But after the war, this discourse disappeared. The authorities now had a single objective: to repopulate the nation, even if it meant restricting women's autonomy. The analysis of the reception of Women as Family Doctor thus provides a prism through which to shed light on a little-known page of French history: the history of ‘medical feminism’ and the first women physicians of the Belle Époque, their impact on women's emancipation and the reasons for their oblivion.

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