Women and the Politics of Education in Third Republic France

In Third Republic France (1870-1940), the directrice of a normal school (ecole normale) for training women teachers was the most important woman representative of public primary education in each department. Her role was central to the republican educational project designed to bolster the establishment of a stable democracy after the Franco-Prussian War. The laicization of public education figured prominently in republican efforts to combat the old alliance of