raise children (Moses 31). Though these women were allowed access to education, their education included religion, reading, some history and geography, and the arts (Moses 32). It was generally felt that, "the way to be married was to be displayed," (Moses 33). In 1807 the first government funded school for girls was established. Yet, this school and the few others that would follow it offered higher level classes for women, but did not prepare them for the Baccalaureate. Unable to pass the baccalaureate, women were denied the ability to attend a University and study for a profession. The best profession available that educated women could receive was teaching positions. However, competition grew for the few positions available. Although an option, a teacher's income was hardly better than a domestic servant's, earning less than four hundred francs annually (Moses 44). With little opportunity to gain access to education and achieve economic independence, women were unable to make much progress during nineteenth century. Though jobs were finally available as a result of the Industrial Revolution, unfair wage practices did not allow for women to become economically independent. Education became available, but it did no more inform on how to become better wives. The patriarchal system gave neither the proletariat nor the bourgeois women room to breathe, let alone form an affective group of feminist activists. Yet, French women saw themselves as separate groups formed by class lines, not as women sharing a common condition. Under these circumstances, feminist movements were unable to gain enough momentum to stir up significant change.The Twentieth Century: Women Caught in a Political Power PlayFrench women had trouble forming a cohesive unit with which they could fight the status quo. Unlike their English and American counterparts who fought the patriarchal system of their country through organizing a large, active group of wo...
