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Under the French IIIrd Republic, the 'Assistance publique'? compulsorily attaches children in care to the land, and they are massively hired in farms at the age of thirteen. Later, boys more or less succeed in freeing themselves, namely thanks to military service or to working in factories. Girls, conversely, seem to be barred: poorly instructed, rarely qualified, confined to the unrewarding tasks of agricultural or bourgeois domestic service, they experience a rather colourless professional career, or even simply stop working after their marriage. From World War I on, girls from the 'Assistance publique'? more and more frequently refuse to be any longer tied to agriculture, thus expressing a real want for social rise. Then, they enter jobs which became feminised as soon as the end of the xixth century (education, French post office and telephone service, employment in offices, etc.). However they will not necessarily make use of a diploma in order to complete that social rise; they also rely on professional experience acquired 'on the job'?, on migrations and on marriage.