Conservative Statements, Innovative Practices

This article studies the major French feminine league, at the beginning of the 20th century: the Ligue patriotique des Françaises (LPDF). The point is to highlight the apparent contradiction between, on the one hand, conservative political statements, and, on the other hand, the sometimes innovative practices of certain Catholic women. The LPDF, which was a million and a half strong in 1933, has represented a place of politization for many Catholic women, which partly explains the electoral behaviour of women when they first could vote. Under the constraint of the 1901 Law, and in the name of the defence of religion and conservatism, the militants have contributed to the modernization of the political system by appropriating certain techniques of mass followers democracy and by converting the know-how they had acquired through their experience in religious matters. Thus appeared, at the beginning of the 20th century, the modern political woman, conservative of course, yet able to finance candidates, to express political propositions, even to promote certain social reforms.