men, French women decided instead to align themselves with political groups in order to bring about positive legislation for women and receive the right to vote (Duchen 10). Unfortunately, playing the game of politics did not always work to their favor.From 1880-1914 the presidency and control of the chamber and senate were in the hands of the republicans - the liberal left (Wolf 438). Under this government, many laws were passed to help relieve the lives of its female citizens, but it was usually passed as part of larger legislation meant to help all working class people. For example, in 1900 a law was passed limiting the workday to ten hours. In 1905 a day of rest once a week was made mandatory under the law. In 1909 it was mandated that women were to receive leave pay for childbirth (de Beauvoir 115). Although these were great strides for the civil rights of women, they were passed along with many bills that reformed workplace conditions.The tragedy of the early twentieth century feminist movements in France was that it was unable to develop a single consciousness of themselves as women. Confining their aspirations to institutional reform alone, they failed to address common sexual and social problems (McMillan 86). The movement was divided culturally and spiritually, with a different faction for every political possible political preference. Mainstream feminists tended to stay away from left-leaning politics, proletariat socialist women tended to veer radically away from their conservative counterparts, and even the Catholic Church proposed a "feminist" movement (McMillan 88). "Women lacked solidarity as a sex," said Simone de Beauvoir of the movement in the early twentieth century (123). Despite the lack of cohesion amongst feminist movements in France, a bill proposed to give women the right to vote was brought to congress in 1906 and received favorable report by some members of congress in 1909. However, the bill rema...
