@article {26534, title = {Entre " nonne " et " monstre " : images " du professeur femme " dans la France de la Belle {\'E}poque}, journal = {French Cultural Studies}, volume = {32}, year = {2021}, pages = {403{\textendash}416}, abstract = {Le {\guillemotleft} professeur femme {\guillemotright} est invent{\'e} en 1881 par la toute jeune IIIe R{\'e}publique dans le cadre d{\textquoteright}une entreprise de large envergure visant {\`a} la la{\"\i}cisation du syst{\`e}me scolaire fran{\c c}ais. Soucieux de ne point nuire au succ{\`e}s d{\textquoteright}une oeuvre si importante pour la stabilit{\'e} du r{\'e}gime m{\^e}me, les r{\'e}publicains s{\textquoteright}emploient {\`a} faire int{\'e}grer cet {\^e}tre {\guillemotleft} hermaphrodite {\guillemotright} tenant autant du masculin que du f{\'e}minin {\`a} la norme. Ainsi est fa{\c c}onn{\'e}e une nouvelle identit{\'e} f{\'e}minine aussi paradoxale que complexe dans la mesure o{\`u} elle concilie deux extr{\^e}mes : celui de la nonne la{\"\i}que enti{\`e}rement vou{\'e}e {\`a} ses {\'e}l{\`e}ves et, par ailleurs, celui de la savante, usurpatrice d{\textquoteright}une profession d{\'e}finie au masculin, ind{\'e}pendante certes, mais au prix du sacrifice de sa f{\'e}minit{\'e}.

The "professeur femme" was invented in France by the Third Republic in 1881 as part of a large-scale enterprise aimed at secularizing the French school system. Anxious not to harm the success of such an important project for the stability of the regime itself, the Republicans tried to integrate to the feminine norms this "hermaphrodite" human being, which takes as much from the female as it does from the male (Madame le Professeur): first, by taking care to give it specific training as to its scientific and moral content and, in this regard, adequate to the limited knowledge that it must transmit to the future French wives and mothers entrusted to it; then, by endowing it with the qualities of chastity, dedication and self-denial that characterize a female model, "the nun", whom it is called to replace. Thus, was shaped at the end of the 19th century a new feminine identity, as paradoxical as it was complex, since it reconciled two extremes: that of the {\textquotedblleft}lay nun{\textquotedblright} and, that, complementarily opposed, of a scholar, independent certainly but at the cost of denial and sacrifice of her femininity. At the crossroads of culture and gender, this study based on legislative and administrative texts, archives and French female secondary teachers{\textquoteright} testimonies explores the construction of a particular sexual, gender and professional identity.}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1177/09571558211022008}, author = {Loukia Efthymiou} }