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Discrimination between the sexes concerning the transmission, acquisition or retention of nationality, in particular the dependence of a married woman on her husband’s nationality, was written into the nationality laws of many states in the nineteenth century. This form of discrimination had started to provoke protests from international women’s associations, from the early twentieth century on. After the First World War, in a period marked both by the rise of nationalism and by the acquisition of women’s suffrage in many countries, the debate took a further international turn. This article analyses, from an international perspective, the arguments of the various protagonists in a debate which revived the tensions between individualism and familialism, and provided an opportunity to reformulate the parameters of women’s citizenship.