Editing French Resistance (section)

===Women===
{{Further|Women in the French Resistance}}
[[File:"Nicole" a French Partisan Who Captured 25 Nazis in the Chartres Area, in Addition to Liquidating Others, Poses with... - NARA - 5957431 - cropped.jpg|thumb|right| [[Simone Segouin|"Nicole Minet"]], a French Partisan who captured 25 Nazis in the Chartres area (August 1944).]]

Although inequalities persisted under the [[French Third Republic|Third Republic]], the cultural changes that followed the First World War allowed differences in the treatment of men and women in France to narrow gradually,{{Sfn|Pollard|1998|p=4}} with some women assuming political responsibilities as early as the 1930s. The defeat of France in 1940 and the appointment of the Vichy régime's conservative leader, [[Philippe Pétain]], undermined feminism,{{Sfn|Pollard|1998|p=6}} and France began a restructuring of society based on the "femme au foyer" or "women at home" imperative.{{Sfn|Furtado|1992|p=160}} On at least one occasion, Pétain spoke out to French mothers about their patriotic duty:

{{blockquote|Mothers of France, our native land, yours is the most difficult task but also the most gratifying. You are, even before the state, the true educators. You alone know how to inspire in all [our youth] the inclination for work, the sense of discipline, the modesty, the respect, that give men character and make nations strong.{{Sfn|Weitz|1995|p=46}}}}

Despite opposing the collaborationist régime, the French Resistance generally sympathised with its [[antifeminism]] and did not encourage the participation of women in war and politics, following, in the words of historian Henri Noguères, "a notion of inequality between the sexes as old as our civilisation and as firmly implanted in the Resistance as it was elsewhere in France".{{Sfn|Michalczyk|1997|p=39}} Consequently, women in the Resistance were less numerous than men and averaged only 11% of the members in the formal networks and movements.{{Sfn|Jackson|2003|p=490}}{{Sfn|Diamond|1999|p=99}} 

[[Madeleine Riffaud|Madeleine Ruffaud]] recalled, as a 19 year-old courier for the FTP, "cross at being told always to carry weapons across town for the men to use".<ref name=":6">{{Cite news |last=Sebba |first=Anne |date=July 2016 |title=Interview with Madeleine Riffaud – The girl who saved Paris |url=https://annesebba.com/journalism/interview-with-madeleine-riffaud-the-girl-who-saved-paris/ |work=The Times T2}}</ref> She secured permission to use a gun herself, and 23 July 1944, in broad daylight on a bridge overlooking the river [[Seine]], shot a lone German [[Non-commissioned officer|NCO]]. After being arrested, and tortured unsuccessfully for her contacts, she was released in a prisoner exchange (negotiated by the Swedish consul [[Raoul Nordling]]) and she returned immediately to the struggle. On 23 August, she commanded an FTP operation that trapped a train in the [[Buttes Chaumont station|Buttes-Chaumont]] tunnel and secured the surrender of the 80 German soldiers aboard.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-08-23 |title=Madeleine Riffaud aux Buttes-Chaumont, symbole d'une jeunesse en résistance |url=https://parislightsup.com/2024/08/23/madeleine-riffaud-aux-buttes-chaumont-symbole-dune-jeunesse-en-resistance-3/ |access-date=2024-12-21 |website=Paris Lights Up |language=fr-FR}}</ref> On the 25th, she also took part in an attack on the barracks on [[Place de la République]].<ref name=":9">{{Cite web |last=Christophe |first=Dauphin |date=2023 |title=Madeleine RIFFAUD (Revue Les Hommes sans Epaules) |url=https://www.leshommessansepaules.com/auteur-Madeleine_RIFFAUD-815-1-1-0-1.html |access-date=2024-12-25 |website=www.leshommessansepaules.com}}</ref> Yet, after the [[Liberation of Paris]], she was unable to finish the war with the rest of her resistance group, now part of the regular French army. At a time when women in France did not yet have the right to vote, she was told that she did not have her father's permission.<ref name=":62">{{Cite news |last=Sebba |first=Anne |date=July 2016 |title=Interview with Madeleine Riffaud – The girl who saved Paris |url=https://annesebba.com/journalism/interview-with-madeleine-riffaud-the-girl-who-saved-paris/ |work=The Times T2}}</ref>

Some the women involved in the Resistance did assume prominent roles.{{Sfn|Weitz|1995|p=65}} Intellectuals like [[Germaine Tillion]] and [[Suzanne Hiltermann-Souloumiac]], highly aware of the signification of Nazism and collaboration, were among the few early resistants. Suzanne Hiltermann-Souloumiac played an important role in the [[Dutch-Paris]] movement, specialised in rescuing Allied pilots. [[Lucie Aubrac]], the iconic resister and co-founder of [[Libération-Sud]], was never assigned a specific role in the hierarchy of the movement.{{Sfn|Weitz|1995|p=65}} Hélène Viannay, one of the founders of [[Défense de la France]] and married to a man who shared her political views, was never permitted to express her opinions in the underground newspaper, and her husband took two years to arrive at political conclusions she had held for many years.{{Sfn|Jackson|2003|p=491}}

[[Marie-Madeleine Fourcade]], the only major female leader in the Resistance, headed the Alliance network.{{Sfn|Weitz|1995|pp=65–66}} The Organisation Civile et Militaire had a female wing headed by [[Marie-Hélène Lefaucheux]],{{Sfn|Duchen|Bandhauer-Schoffmann|2000|p=150}} who took part in setting up the Œuvre de Sainte-Foy to assist prisoners in French jails and German concentration camps.{{Sfn|Weitz|1995|p=175}} But no women were chosen to lead any of the [[National Council of the Resistance|eight major Resistance movements]]. After the liberation of France, the [[Provisional Government of the French Republic|provisional government]] appointed no women ministers or ''[[Commissioner of the Republic (Provisional Government)|commissaires de la République]]''.{{Sfn|Weitz|1995|p=66}} However, as head of the [[Provisional Government of the French Republic]], general de Gaulle, as a recognition of and a reward for their role in the Resistance, granted women the right to vote in 1945.