Global Policy Forum

By Brigitte Pätzold

The birth of her first daughter prompted Florence Montreynaud to undertake a mammoth task: to fill in the blank pages in the history of women by telling the story of the 20th century through women. What, she wondered, should she tell her daughter about the women who had gone before her. What should she tell her about those women that male historians - the exclusive retailers of history - had passed over, making it seem the world revolves exclusively, or almost exclusively, around men. She decided to take up the challenge (1), and catalogue and write the history of women throughout the world, year by year, from 1900 to 1999. This has been a crucial century in which the condition of women has changed as never before. Yet all we were given were a few dates and the usual snippets of information: that General de Gaulle "gave" women the vote in 1945, and Marie Curie discovered radium with her husband Pierre.

But who had heard of Emmy Noether, who invented modern algebra and Noether's theorem? She was admitted to university in 1900 and allowed to sit in on lectures. And in 1915 became an - unpaid - lecturer. And what about Lady Constance Lytton who demonstrated for votes for women in London in 1909 and was left paralysed as a result of police brutality? Or the Norwegian, Elise Ottesen-Jensen, who said back in 1923 that "a child must be wanted", and founded the Swedish family planning system ten years later?

When the advances and retreats of women through the 20th century are compared internationally, it is apparent that French women, in the land of gallantry, were among the last to obtain their civic rights. British and German women got the vote in 1918, but French women had to wait until 1945. It is surprising to find that in 1931 the legal status of Spanish women was one of the most progressive in Europe as a result of the left's political victory. And in 1935 Turkish women were modernising so rapidly that Turkey was considered the "newest feminist country".

While the 20th century has seen western women make great strides - in education, the vote and contraception - it has also seen a rise in religious fundamentalism over the past 20 years. In Iraq, a law of 1990 allows an adulteress to be murdered by a male member of her family. In Saudi Arabia, women are not allowed to drive. In Afghanistan, girls are barred from attending school.

Eastern Europe also experienced setbacks after the collapse of the Berlin Wall. The number of women elected to public office has fallen dramatically (from 30% to 6% in the Czech Republic). In Poland, contraception and abortion are again a matter of debate. Prostitution is flourishing. Soviet teenagers consider it the "ideal job".

The last chapter of the book considers the year 2000 and reminds us that feminists throughout the world will be marching to protest against poverty and violence against women. Seventy per cent of the world's poor are women. They continue to be raped, harassed and beaten.

But the year 2000 also marks the realisation of the dreams of some feminists from the early part of the century. In 1917, in the Soviet Union, Alexandra Kollontai, the first women ever to be part of a government, wanted to put an end to women's domestic burdens by making housework a collective task. In 2000, the Finn, Liisa Joronen, founder of Sol, has achieved that brilliant Soviet intellectual's dream. Her 2,700 employees include neither secretaries nor cleaners. Everybody shares those uncongenial tasks.

The author reminds us that dreams are a necessity. Back in 1900, whoever would have imagined that women could take charge of their fertility? In 2000 the idea of a world without prostitution or violence might seem pie in the sky to some, but others are quite capable of dreaming of it and, better still, demanding it.

(1) Florence Montreynaud, Le XXe sií¨cle des femmes, Nathan, Paris, 1999.
-Translated by Julie Stoker

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