The resistantes. Research prospects.

Does a specific feminine resistance exist, distinct from that of men ? Was the ideal of the housewife/mother which was established between the thirties and the fifties favorable or unfavorable to women's commitment to the Resistance ? Did the modes of this commitment reproduce the gendered division of roles ? Like any social history, that of women is seen through the history of representations, bur in this case, the way men and women themselves viewed their resistance complicates our understanding. The resistantes were not feminist in the current meaning, so that they tended to underestimate their personal participation. Postwar censuses only show the minority of women who wished to declare their contribution. The nature of female activities partly explains this under-evaluation: the resistance at home like the harbouring of clandestine people fitted in with the ''woman's natural vocation''. Likewise, ''feminine'' jobs like secretarial tasks or social work were held by women in the underground movement. In this repertoire of action, other acts broke with tradition, like military intelligence, organisation of housewives' demonstrations, or armed resistance. But neither these practices nor the ordeals endured by arrested resistantes led to a change in woman's image at the Liberation.