| Before the late 1960s, publishing in France was a singularly male affair. By the 1970s women were entering the publishing milieu in increasing numbers, transforming the range of books available on the market. Editions des femmes was the first female-owned and female-operated publishing house to emerge from the "events" of 1968 that published books targeting a general audience and covering a wide range of genres, approaches, and themes. Its founding and subsequent history illustrate the convergence between cultural politics, including the women's movement and the transformation of the intellectual milieu in France since 1968, and the business of publishing in France. The dissertation demonstrates the instrumental role of Editions des Femmes in creating the figure of the woman editor (editrice ) and the changing conditions in which that professional identity developed over the course of the 1970s and 1980s. One such change involved women's relation to dominant cultural institutions such as publishing. As women challenged their exclusion from these institutions, they were inevitably drawn into them; in the process, women, particularly at Edition des femmes, transformed publishing and the literary culture of France. The publishing house was also emblematic of new trends in the industry as a whole. Its assortment of genres, its high profile catalog, and its public image served to challenge the hegemony of large publishing establishments, as well as male domination of the industry. Furthermore, its evolution from a militant, collectively run publishing house into a house more responsive to the financial and political pressures of the 1980s reflected the decline of the militant left and the organized women's movement as political forces. The dissertation examines the founding of Editions des Femmes, its role in exacerbating tensions within the women's movement, and the evolution of its catalog from 1974 to 2004. It offers comparisons between Editions des femmes and more recently founded female-owned publishing houses in France. Sources for the project include press clippings, archival documents from Editions des Femmes and related to the women's movement in France, and interviews with some prominent female publishers such as Antoinette Fouque and Genevieve Pastre. |
