Françoise Thébaud


Françoise Thébaud is a French historian, professor emeritus of history, and specialist in the history of women. In 2017, she was awarded the Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur.

Early life and education

Françoise Thébaud was born in 1952.
She studied at the École normale supérieure de lettres et sciences humaines, and completed a 3rd cycle thesis entitled Quand nos grand-mères donnaient la vie : la maternité en France dans l'entre-deux guerres. She completed the Agrégation d'histoire in 1975.

Career and research

Thébaud was a teacher-researcher from 1985 to 1997 at Lumière University Lyon 2 and then, in 1995, presented a university habilitation dissertation in history entitled Écrire l’histoire des femmes : bilans et perspectives, at Lumière University Lyon 2. She served as professor of contemporary history at Avignon University, from 1997 to 2007, before assuming the title of professor emeritus. Affiliated with Institut des Etudes Genre de l’Université de Genève and Labex EHNE, some of Thébaud's research has focused on:
  • history of feminisms and feminists
  • social and political history of motherhood
  • writing and epistemology of history: from the history of women to the history of gender
In her book Quand nos grands-mères donnaient la vie, Thébaud draws on censuses, demographic and economic statistics, medical theses, obstetrics and childcare manuals, to reconstruct the experience of motherhood. She shows in particular that pronatalist propaganda pushes women to be convinced that childbearing is a national duty, at the same time as an accomplishment of their nature. In her review of the book, the historian Marie-France Morel writes that Thébaud proposes "new issues in the history of women", as well as a questioning of the medical power and the functioning of maternities.
In 1995, she co-founded the history journal, Clio. Femmes, genre, histoire, serving as its co-director from 1995 to 2012. In 2003, she was co-editing it with Michelle Zancarini-Fournel; in 2008, she was co-editing it with. Until 2009, she served as president of the association for the development of the history of women and gender.
Thébaud edited volume 5 of Le XXe siècle and published Écrire l'histoire des femmes. She also co-edited Féminismes et identités nationales and Le Siècle des féminismes. Her La Femme au temps de la Guerre de 14, is considered the classic work regarding the experience of French women during World War I.

Awards and honours