60

The debate on violence against women has emerged today in the forefront of media concerns. It is treated as a current affair topic, as a problem that affects the whole of French society. The results of the National Survey of Violence Against Women in France (ENVEFF), the only available one in France, feed this discussion. In scientific circles, there are still those who decry its legitimacy as a research topic. However, the social and political perception of this phenomenon has radically changed since 1997, the year when the idea of a quantitative investigation into violence against women in France was launched. That year, in an international context that was very sensitive to this theme, the French scientific and political context was specific. Compared to the countries of Northern Europe, France had to make up for lost time on the question, but scientific circles, including feminist researchers, remained relatively circumspect. In order to better understand this context, this article sets in historical perspective the evolution of public policies, and the research and debates of feminist activists from the beginning of the women’s movement up to the time that the government commissioned the ENVEFF survey.