Feminism in and through Education: Perspectives on L’Éducation féministe des filles by Madeleine Pelletier (1914)
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In her paper of 1914, Madeleine Pelletier raised the question of an education that leads to a “real emancipation” of women from the constraints to which they are subjected. Such education must be “feminist,” i.e., breaking with male society and organizing future solidarity between those who are currently oppressed. But both requirements present difficulties and contradictions. Should not the break occur first within the community of women, the submission having been inculcated by them? Feminist education should therefore isolate the girl from her female contemporaries and affirm masculine models in a process of “civilization” that promotes the emergence of new individuals. Or should the task be envisaged as being primarily a political (collective and social) one that is carried out through the establishment of a limited number of “feminist schools”? Or should it be one of generalizing the “feminist spirit,” undertaken by teachers in public schools who are themselves feminists? Feminist education would then be paradoxical and “the wrong way round,” favoring individual liberty above future solidarity and collective emancipation.
Réseaux sociaux