Blessed Motherhood, Bitter Fruit

Nelly Roussel (1878–1922)—the first feminist spokeswoman for birth control in Europe—challenged both the men of early twentieth-century France, who sought to preserve the status quo, and the women who aimed to change it. She delivered her messages through public lectures, journalism, and theater, da...

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Main Author: Accampo, Elinor
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: Johns Hopkins University Press 2022
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Online Access:ONIX_20220715_9781421427898_487
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author Accampo, Elinor
author_browse Accampo, Elinor
author_facet Accampo, Elinor
author_sort Accampo, Elinor
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description Nelly Roussel (1878–1922)—the first feminist spokeswoman for birth control in Europe—challenged both the men of early twentieth-century France, who sought to preserve the status quo, and the women who aimed to change it. She delivered her messages through public lectures, journalism, and theater, dazzling audiences with her beauty, intelligence, and disarming wit. She did so within the context of a national depopulation crisis caused by the confluence of low birth rates, the rise of international tensions, and the tragedy of the First World War. While her support spread across social classes, strong political resistance to her message revealed deeply conservative precepts about gender which were grounded in French identity itself. In this thoughtful and provocative study, Elinor Accampo follows Roussel's life from her youth, marriage, speaking career, motherhood, and political activism to her decline and death from tuberculosis in the years following World War I. She tells the story of a woman whose life and work spanned a historical moment when womanhood was being redefined by the acceptance of a woman's sexuality as distinct from her biological, reproductive role—a development that is still causing controversy today.
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language eng
publishDate 2022
publishDateRange 2022
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publisher Johns Hopkins University Press
publisherStr Johns Hopkins University Press
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-887402024-03-29T04:24:33Z Blessed Motherhood, Bitter Fruit Accampo, Elinor Feminism & feminist theory thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSF Gender studies, gender groups::JBSF1 Gender studies: women and girls::JBSF11 Feminism and feminist theory Nelly Roussel (1878–1922)—the first feminist spokeswoman for birth control in Europe—challenged both the men of early twentieth-century France, who sought to preserve the status quo, and the women who aimed to change it. She delivered her messages through public lectures, journalism, and theater, dazzling audiences with her beauty, intelligence, and disarming wit. She did so within the context of a national depopulation crisis caused by the confluence of low birth rates, the rise of international tensions, and the tragedy of the First World War. While her support spread across social classes, strong political resistance to her message revealed deeply conservative precepts about gender which were grounded in French identity itself. In this thoughtful and provocative study, Elinor Accampo follows Roussel's life from her youth, marriage, speaking career, motherhood, and political activism to her decline and death from tuberculosis in the years following World War I. She tells the story of a woman whose life and work spanned a historical moment when womanhood was being redefined by the acceptance of a woman's sexuality as distinct from her biological, reproductive role—a development that is still causing controversy today. 2022-07-15T15:12:38Z 2022-07-15T15:12:38Z 2006 book ONIX_20220715_9781421427898_487 9781421427898 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/88740 eng image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://muse.jhu.edu/book/3243 Johns Hopkins University Press 10.1353/book.3243 10.1353/book.3243 1f9b1002-ec35-4fcf-94be-32cfd0a1dfd3 9781421427898 336 open access
spellingShingle Feminism & feminist theory
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSF Gender studies, gender groups::JBSF1 Gender studies: women and girls::JBSF11 Feminism and feminist theory
Accampo, Elinor
Blessed Motherhood, Bitter Fruit
title Blessed Motherhood, Bitter Fruit
title_full Blessed Motherhood, Bitter Fruit
title_fullStr Blessed Motherhood, Bitter Fruit
title_full_unstemmed Blessed Motherhood, Bitter Fruit
title_short Blessed Motherhood, Bitter Fruit
title_sort blessed motherhood bitter fruit
topic Feminism & feminist theory
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSF Gender studies, gender groups::JBSF1 Gender studies: women and girls::JBSF11 Feminism and feminist theory
topic_facet Feminism & feminist theory
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSF Gender studies, gender groups::JBSF1 Gender studies: women and girls::JBSF11 Feminism and feminist theory
url ONIX_20220715_9781421427898_487
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