Blessed Motherhood, Bitter Fruit: Nelly Roussel and the Politics of Female Pain in Third Republic France

by Elinor A. Accampo

Nelly Roussel (1878–1922)―the first feminist spokeswoman for birth control in Europe―challenged both the men of early twentieth-century France, who sought to preserve the status quo, and the women who aimed to change it. She delivered her messages through public lectures, journalism, and theater, dazzling audiences with her beauty, intelligence, and disarming wit. She did so within the context of a national depopulation crisis caused by the confluence of low birth rates, the rise of international tensions, and the tragedy of the First World War. While her support spread across social classes, strong political resistance to her message revealed deeply conservative precepts about gender which were grounded in French identity itself. In this thoughtful and provocative study, Elinor Accampo follows Roussel's life from her youth, marriage, speaking career, motherhood, and political activism to her decline and death from tuberculosis in the years following World War I. She tells the story of a woman whose life and work spanned a historical moment when womanhood was being redefined by the acceptance of a woman's sexuality as distinct from her biological, reproductive role―a development that is still causing controversy today.

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[April Li · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too academic for me. I was on and off this book for almost a year but always got lost in the trivia details of Roussel's life issues, household-wise or career-wise. Most of the issues don't seem to be all that connected to what I understood as the main focus of the book - Roussel's feminism stands and the change over the years. My lack of knowledge of French history background certainly doesn't help either.