The New Rural Home
Gender and Rural Modernization in Postwar France
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Abstract
After World War II, France's rural Catholic youth associations (Jeunesse agricole catholique [JAC] and its sister organization, Jeunesse agricole catholique féminine [JACF]) organized a traveling home expo for agrarian families. The Rural Home Expo promoted a vision of rural modernization that drew on gendered models of postwar consumerism, economic development, and Catholic teaching on the family. The new rural home envisioned by JAC helped popularize and advance policies to industrialize French agriculture. By the mid-1950s, female activists resisted the gendered division of labor on which this vision was based. In 1957, JACF shifted its mission to promote women's participation in the agricultural profession.
Contributor Notes
Sheila Nowinski is an Assistant Professor of History and Director of the Dietrich Honors Institute at Thiel College in Greenville, Pennsylvania. She received her doctorate from the University of Notre Dame in 2012. Email: snowinski@thiel.edu