National Council of French Women

Julie Siegfried, second president

The CNFF peaked in the period before World War I (1914–18), an era when feminist movements flourished in Europe and elsewhere.[9] The CNFF joined the International Council of Women (ICW), created in 1888 in the United States. On 10 May 1902 the CNFF, with 40 federated associations representing 28,000 members, passed a unanimous motion that women's suffrage was the most basic of all women's demands.[2] From 1902 Avril de Sainte-Croix was a strong advocate of women's suffrage in the CNFF. In 1903 Sainte-Croix was secretary general of the CNFF and also of the French branch of the International Abolitionist Federation,[lower-alpha 1] which she ran from her home at 1 Avenue Malakoff.[11] Pauline Kergomard was president of the CNFF section on education from 1905 to 1920.[7]

The CNFF passed a resolution against abortion in 1906, citing the maternal mission and the altruistic function of mothers.[12] The majority of feminists in France felt that delinquent fathers of illegitimate children should be forced to provide support, but did not deserve paternal rights. In 1903 the CNFF and the French Group for Feminist Studies led a group that proposed a law in which paternity would be based on a reasonable presumption rather than absolute proof, the father would be required to pay to support the child, but the mother would retain parental power.[13] The supporters of the feminists in the Chamber of Deputies would not accept this proposal, since they felt it did not encourage marriage and paternal responsibility. A law passed in 1912 required proof of paternity in writing, did not allow recognition of children of incest or adultery, and imposed heavy fines on women whose attempts to prove paternity were rejected.[13]

The CNFF, at first moderate in stating its position, was very active between 1909 and 1914 in advocating women's suffrage.[14] By 1910 the CNFF had almost 75,000 members.[2] On 11 November 1911 Sarah Monod received the Legion of Honor from the hands of Senator Camille Ferdinand Dreyfus.[15] The French government noted a number of reforms that had been inspired or recommended by the CNFF under her leadership:[16] Julie Siegfried (1848-1922), from a Protestant and deeply Republican bourgeois family, took over the leadership of the CNFF from Monod in 1912.[17] Gabrielle Duchêne, a wealthy philanthropist who helped organize seamstresses in Paris, was president of the labor section of the CNFF from 1913 to 1915.[18][19] On the eve of World War I there were 150 societies in the CNFF including the French Union of Woman Suffrage, with 80 branches, the Society for the Improvement of Women's Lot and the Fraternal Union of women.[20]

When World War I (1914–18) began feminists were expected to suspend their demands and support their country in its struggle.[9] During the war the CNFF would not support the pacifist movement. The official line was that French women had always been sympathetic to pacifism and sought "peace and international understanding, if not in the entire world, at least in Europe." However, "until the German women protested to their own government against its violations of international law and the crimes of its army against civilians, any cooperation with them would be a betrayal of the nation; the fact that they belong to the female sex was quite irrelevant."[21]

Avril de Sainte-Croix

Unlike other European countries, women in France did not gain the right to vote after the war, but the CNFF gained influence and prestige.[22] In 1919 Avril de Sainte-Croix and the CNFF engaged in a campaign to convince the Allied leaders at the Versailles Peace Conference to address women and their problems in the charter of the new League of Nations, with partial success. The CNFF also worked to convince the French senators to pass the bill for women's suffrage.[11] Julie Siegfried's husband, Jules Siegfried, was a deputy and won passage of the right for women to vote in 1919, but the law was rejected by the Senate. Julie Siegfried was decorated with the Knight's cross of the Legion of Honor by Alexandre Millerand.[17]

Avril de Sainte-Croix organized the CNFF congress in 1919.[11] The congress was held in Strasbourg on 8–9 October 1919. At this meeting it called for a reform to the laws so that a French woman who married a foreigner could choose to retain her nationality. A draft change to the law was proposed under which a French woman would remain French unless she chose to take her husband's nationality. This was proclaimed as "a big step taken in just a few years" at the CNFF meeting in 1922, but the CNFF also asked for reciprocity, the right for a foreign woman who had married a French man to automatically have the right to French citizenship. This eventually found its way into the law of 10 August 1927.[23]

In the postwar period the CNFF prepared arguments for reform of the laws to make it easier to submit paternity suits, while retaining the mother's right to custody of the child.[24] In 1919 the CNFF felt women should contribute to the "struggle against depopulation", and demanded improvements in aid to large families and in child welfare services. They also demanded that women should have equal access to work and equal pay whether or not they were married or had children. Some feminists noted that schemes where the father received child support payments were unlikely to achieve the desired effect.[25] The CNFF issued a position paper in 1919 that demanded an end to the legal disadvantages to which married women were subject, allowing them to make decisions without the approval of their husband, and demanded equal parental rights with any disagreement to be decided in court.[26]

Etats généraux du féminisme, Paris, 1929

In 1922 Avril de Sainte-Croix succeeded Julie Siegfried as president of the CNFF, holding this position until 1932 when she was replaced by Marguerite Pichon-Landry.[11] In 1925 the CNFF had 125,000 members.[2] Sainte-Croix campaigned in 1927 to have women admitted to the police force.[11] She presided over the CNFF's États-Généraux du Féminisme[lower-alpha 2] congresses in 1929, 1930 and 1931. These congresses focused in successive years on women's legal rights, economic standing and position in the colonies.[27] In 1929 the Estates General of Feminism endorsed child allowances.[25] Marguerite Pichon-Landry (1878–1972) chaired the Legislation section of the CNFF from 1914 to 1927, and was secretary-general from 1929 to 1932. She was president from 1932 to 1952. Pichon-Landry was awarded the medal of the resistance and was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor.[28]

Marie-Hélène Lefaucheux (1904–64) was active in the CNFF after World War II.[29] Lefaucheux was also very active in the Association of Women of the French Union (Association des Femmes de l'Union Française), and served as a link between this organization and the CNFF.[29] Lefaucheux was president of the CNFF from 1954 to 1964, and president of the International Council of Women from 1957 to 1963.[30] She was also a member of the secretariat of the Commission on Women of the United Nations and the French delegation to the United Nations.[31] She achieved major advances for African women. Françoise Bouteiller, president of the CNFF in 1998, testified to the praise given to Lafaucheux by women she had met when she toured Africa for the council in 1975. The Foundation Marie-Hélène Lefaucheux was established to assist African women.[31]

In 1962 the CNFF joined the European Center of the International Council of Women, established in 1962.[2] The CNFF campaigned against social ills including alcoholism, prostitution and the explosion of pornography in the 1970s. The CNFF works discreetly, and with mostly middle-aged members has a bourgeois image. It is today the oldest active French feminist association.[32] The CNFF today has an Executive Committee of which one third is renewed every three years, elected by the General Assembly of the affiliated associations and individual members. The General Assembly is the decision-making body. The Executive Committee has a president and five vice-presidents, a secretary general and deputy secretary general, a treasurer and assistant treasurer.[33] The goal of the CNFF in collaboration with its member organizations is to affirm the place and role of women in society, to ensure respect for their rights, and to contribute to building a united world where women are fairly represented.[34]