Hierarchies of race and gender in the French colonial empire, 1914-1946

This article looks at French Indochina, metropolitan France, and French West Africa from 1914 through 1946 to illustrate specific ways in which French colonial authority operated across the French empire. We look at how colonized people challenged the complex formal and informal hierarchies of race, class, and gender that French administrators and colonizers sought to impose upon them. We argue that both the French imperial prerogatives and colonized peoples' responses to them are revealed through directly comparing and contrasting various locales across the empire. Our case studies explore interracial families and single white women seeking compensation from the French in Indochina, black men defining their masculinity, and Africans debating women's suffrage rights.

Title	Hierarchies of race and gender in the French colonial empire, 1914-1946
Creator	Boittin, J. A.
	Firpo, C.
	Church, Emily Musil
Publisher	Historical Reflections
Academic Department	History
Division	Social Sciences
Organization	Lafayette College
Date Issued	2011
Date Available	2013-08-20T18:49:12Z
Type	Article
Language	English
Keyword	Indochina
	Africa
	Vietnam
	feminism
	masculinity
	Caribbean
	metissage
Bibliographic Citation	Boittin, J. A., C. Firpo, and E. M. Church. (2011) "Hierarchies of race and gender in the French colonial empire, 1914-1946." Historical Reflections 37 (1): 60-90.
Standard Identifier	DOI 10.3167/hrrh.2011.370104
Standard Identifier	Handle 10385/1283
Permalink	http://hdl.handle.net/10385/1283
Rights Statement	In Copyright
Rights Holders	Berghahn Books
Rights Holders	Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques