Feminine involvement and claims in Ille-et-Vilaine from 1945 to the 1960s

This article describes the involvement and public actions of women in Ille- et-Vilaine (part of Brittany), a rural and Catholic area, between 1945 and 1965. Women's participation was low and rather discrete, since the public a ctions were very few. Yet their activities took different forms, depending on their rural or urban origin. In the towns, the women in small numbers jo ined women's organizations (UFF, UFCS), or trade-unions which - though ackn owledging the principle of equality between men and women stated in the Con stitution - still conveyed a traditional image of woman. In these groups, w omen showed active concern for questions that were not especially feminist such as the improvement of living conditions, pay rise, or peace in the wor ld. In rural areas the "Action catholique" groups (JACF, family organizatio ns) managed to motivate young women to join them., These associations did n ot directly defend women's rights, but led them to take part in debates and reflections over their own conditions of life and encouraged them to set u p collective projects adapted to rural life. At the end of the 1950s, all t hese associations (rural and urban) declined when new women's groups appear ed, defending more feminist themes, such as birth control and the right to have a job.