A photographic history of women in the 20th century
This history of women in the 20th century, as seen through the Roger-Viollet collections, is the history of their emancipation. Freeing themselves from the guardianship of their fathers or husbands, they eventually obtained all civil rights, on an equal footing with men. These hundred years were for women a conquest of their freedom. But how did they live during these decades? What was the fate of their time? Which famous women have marked their time?
The Roger-Viollet Gallery presents a selection of 86 contemporary prints offered in a limited edition of 30 copies. These photographs are from the book Une histoire photographique des femmes au XXe siècle published by Gründ Editions.
The social order of the early 20th century was based on marriage. The lot reserved for women was to be wives and mothers. Women went from their father's arms to their husband's. By the age of 25, single women used to wear hats on Saint Catherine's Day.
Wealthy women focused on being beautiful, maintaining their social status and keeping their houses while poor women were working hard, as servants, farm workers or in factories.
However the education of women opened new horizons. Suffragettes, who came from England, started to demand the right to vote. Sea bathing became fashionable and bodies were gradually liberated. Sports opened up to women. The champion Suzanne Lenglen imposed herself on the tennis courts. The present was still for men but future may belong to women.
Le drapage du corsage chez Worth. Paris, 1907. Photo Jacques Boyer.
30x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Washerwoman on the banks of the river Allier. Moulins (France), circa 1900. Photo CAP.
30x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Parisian woman getting dressed. Paris, 1900-1910. Photo Léon & Lévy.
30x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Swimmers. Deauville (France), August 1913. Photo Maurice-Louis Branger.
30x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Towing of a fishing boat. Les Sables-d'Olonne (France), circa 1900-1910. Photo Neurdein.
24x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Milliner reading the newspaper "Le Petit Parisien". Paris, 1899. Photo Jacques Boyer.
24x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
The first billsticker women with advertising posters for the Pigier school. Paris, 1908. Photo Albert Harlingue.
30x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
World War I. Former milliners who became chimney sweeps, working on a roof. Paris, late November 1917. Photo Excelsior.
24x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Women pushing carts up from the mine. Bruay-en-Artois (France), circa 1910. Photo Collection Roger-Viollet.
24x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
World War I. Former milliners who became chimney sweeps, working on a roof. Paris, late November 1917. Photo Caudrilliers / Excelsior.
24x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
World War I. New jobs for women since the beginning of the war: postwoman. Paris, June 1917. Photo Excelsior.
24x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
World War I. Women hired by the Canadian Red Cross Society to transport the injured. Working as a mechanic, inspecting the engine of a car. Paris, February 1917. Photo Excelsior.
24x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
World War I. Women hired by the Canadian Red Cross Society to transport the injured. Paris, February 1917. Photo Excelsior.
24x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
World War I. Women working in an ammunition factory. Photo Maurice-Louis Branger.
24x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
A wedding in Sologne (France), circa 1910. Photo Neurdein.
30x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
World War I. Strikes in Paris about the vote of the English week (rest on Saturday afternoons for the fashion workers), and the expensive life, late May 1917. Photo Excelsior.
30x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Meeting of the committee for the women's right to vote, under the presidency of Mrs Maria Verone. May 1914. Photo Maurice-Louis Branger.
30x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Propaganda from the League of women voters for the women's right to vote. France, 1925. Photo Albert Harlingue.
30x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Catherinettes day (single women's day). Women taking part in a contest of traditional paper bonnets, presenting their models. Paris, circa 1925. Photo Maurice-Louis Branger.
30x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Women having a drink at the terrace of a café. Paris, circa 1925. Photo Maurice-Louis Branger.
40x50 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Fashion advertising. Women in a train. 1934. Photo Boris Lipnitzki.
30x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
"La France travaille." Miners. Woman working as a sorter, cleaning up her face. Lens (France). Company: Société des mines de Lens. 1931-1934. Photo François Kollar.
30x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Suzanne Lenglen (1899-1938), French tennis player, and Elizabeth Ryan (1892-1979), American tennis player, during the Wimbledon Championships. London (England), June 17, 1920. Photo PA Archive.
24x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Sculpture studio. Paris, 1920's. Photo Albert Harlingue.
30x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Woman soldering with a blowtorch on a metal structure. Paris, circa 1930. Photo Albert Harlingue.
30x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
In 1922, a novel by Victor Margueritte "La garçonne" (The flapper) caused a scandal. Detailing the story of a young woman living her life with the same sexual freedom as a man. The scandal initiated a fashion phenomenon. Women started to cut off their hair and removed their hats. Their dresses started to show their legs and arms. The most insolent even borrowed trousers from men. And what's more, they smoked in public! The Roaring Twenties were a time of great freedom and creativity for women.
Woman wearing a men's suit (Mrs Maitrot), circa 1930. Photo Maurice-Louis Branger.
30x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Models from Patou's. Paris, 1927. Photo Boris Lipnitzki.
30x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Woman smoking, 1925-1930. Photo Collection Roger-Viollet.
30x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Women's fashion, in the 1930's. Photo Maurice-Louis Branger.
30x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Less and less considerd as objects, women became more and more subjects and engaged in every fight next to men.
Popular Front. Bastille Day parade. Procession towards the place de la Bastille. Paris, on July 14, 1936. Photo Gaston Paris.
45x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Marianne. Project for the cover of the magazine "Regards" of July 9, 1936. Photo Marcel Cerf.
30x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
"Fête de L'Humanité", annual festival organized by the French communist newspaper "L'Humanité". A Spanish woman serving in the Republican faction. Garches (France), 1936. Photo Marcel Cerf.
30x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Bastille Day dance in the street. Paris, on July 14, 1938. Photo Collection Roger-Viollet.
30x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Popular Front. Bastille Day parade: cleaning ladies, window cleaners... members of the C.G.T. (General Confederation of Labour, French union). Paris, on July 14, 1936. Photo Collection Roger-Viollet.
30x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
World War II. Fashion at the Luxembourg gardens. Paris, May 1942. Photograph for the magazine "Signal" of nazi propaganda. Photo André Zucca.
30x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Folies-Bergère cabaret, backstage. Paris (9th arrondissement), 1937. Photo Gaston Paris.
40x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Report for the magazine "Fémina". French Riviera, 1933-1935. Photo Boris Lipnitzki.
50x50 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Beach scene. Deauville (France), 1937. Photo Boris Lipnitzki.
40x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Popular Front. Striking dressmaker's apprentices from a famous fashion house getting some milk for their breakfast. Paris, June 1936. Photo Collection Roger-Viollet.
30x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Municipal elections in April 1945. Women voting for the first time in France. Photo Collection Roger-Viollet.
30x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
World War II. Banks of the river Seine in Paris. Photograph for the magazine "Signal" of nazi propaganda. Photo André Zucca.
30x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Liberation of Paris (August 22-23, 1944). Barricade, rue de la Huchette, Paris (5th arrondissement). Photograph known as "The baker of the Cité". Photo Pierre Roughol.
30x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
On April 21, 1944, General de Gaulle, impressed by the number of female resistance fighters during World War II, granted women the right to vote. They were now considered as full citizens. It will be from now on "French women, Frenchmen!"
Yet, by the time of the Liberation, other forces, darker and more archaic, shaved the hair of women suspected of having slept with the enemy. This shameful period reminded women that their bodies were still a territory that did not belong to them. Beware of those who disposed of it as they please.
Women had not finished resisting and fighting.
World War II. Shorn women at the time of the Liberation of a city in the South of France, 1944. Photo LAPI.
30x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Mother and her children at the Tuileries garden. Paris (1st arrondissement), circa 1950. Photo Collection Roger-Viollet.
30x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
The 1950's mixed conservatism and
Terrace of a café. Paris, 1950's. Photo Collection Roger-Viollet.
30x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Woman vacuuming the floor. France, 1950's. Photo Laure Albin Guillot.
30x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
The 1950's and 1960's encouraged women to stay at home. This was the era of the stay-at-home mother. The ideal woman then was the perfect housewife.
She was the one who educated, prepared meals and kept her house clean. She also managed the family money. The housewife was the pillar of the consumer society. To please her, domestic tasks were renamed Home economics. By showing her as an elegant and refined woman, she was made to believe that cooking and vacuuming were part of her personal development. Many women have fallen for this...
Housewife taking out a dish from the oven. France, 1950s. Photo Laure Albin Guillot.
30x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
The Café de Flore. Paris (6th arrondissement), June 1959. Photo Bernard Lipnitzki.
30x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Girl in front of a jukebox, 1956. Photo Bernard Lipnitzki.
30x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Show-flat. Desk equipped with a television set, with a view on the kitchen, circa 1960-1965. Photo Collection Roger-Viollet.
30x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Mercedes 300SL coupé car with butterfly doors (1954-1957). Photo Ray Halin.
30x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Mercedes 190 convertible, 1960's. Photo Collection Roger-Viollet.
30x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Women on a beach. France, in the 1950's-1960's. Photo Collection Roger-Viollet.
30x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
The body was no longer only dedicated to reproduction, it could also be sexy and a source of pleasure. Simone de Beauvoir and Brigitte Bardot had a real impact. "One is not born a woman, one becomes one".
Young women in bathing costumes, late 1960's. Photo Ullstein Bild.
30x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Woman sunbathing on the beach, 1970's. Photo Collection Roger-Viollet.
30x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Young woman wearing a bikini, 1970's. Photo Collection Roger-Viollet.
30x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Twiggy (born in 1949), English model. Photo Collection Roger-Viollet.
30x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
First youth centre (Maison des Jeunes). Photographs of teen idols like Brigitte Bardot who had just started the trend of pink and white gingham dresses. Vincennes (France), 1960. Photo Janine Niepce.
21x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
The 1960's, rock and roll and miniskirts portrayed an insolent youth. The student protests of May 1968 were followed by the women's revolt with the Women's Liberation Movement during the next decade.
The progress of medicine finally gave women the possibility to choose to carry a child or not. Upon the arrival of the contraceptive pill, they finally took possession of their bodies and control their own fate.
The first Parisian hairdressing salon created by Jacques Dessange (1925-2020), French hairdresser and businessman. Paris, on June 9, 1969. Photo André Perlstein.
40x27 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Events of May-June 1968. Demonstrator waving a red flag during a rally of the French General Confederation of Labour (C.G.T.), place de la Bastille. Paris, May 29, 1968. Photo Janine Niepce.
24X36 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Brigitte Bardot (born in 1934), French actress and singer, during the recording of Serge Gainsbourg's song "Harley Davidson" for a television program. Photo for the cover of the 45 rpm record "Harley Davidson". Paris, November 1967. Photo Bernard Hermann.
30x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Rally against the Year of the Woman and the Giroud Ministry (Françoise Giroud, Secretary of State to the Prime Minister, responsible for the Status of Women, between July 1974 and August 1976). Paris, on March 8, 1975. Photo Catherine Deudon.
40x26 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
1970 was the decade of all the feminist fights, that of the Women's liberation movement. Behind leading figures such as Gisèle Halimi and Simone de Beauvoir, thousands of women marched in the streets to claim their rights but also to enjoy the simple happiness of being women.
The women of the 1970's rejected male oppression and claimed their freedom and autonomy.
Feminist discussion groups multiplied. The status of women was the great debate of the time.
Determined and united, women will change mentalities and laws.
First rally counting 5,000 to 10,000 people, denouncing the horror of illegal abortions and claiming the right to abortion and contraception. Paris, on November 20, 1971. Photo Catherine Deudon.
40x26 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Rally for the free abortion. Paris, on October 6, 1979. Photo Janine Niepce.
20x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Catherine Valabrègue (1917-1999), actress, writer and activist, greeting a woman at the French Movement for Family Planning. Paris, 1960's. Photo Janine Niepce.
30x25 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Women Fair (Foire aux Femmes), feminist rally organized by the Women's Liberation Movement (MLF, Mouvement de la Libération de la Femme). Cartoucherie de Vincennes (France), on June 17, 1973. Photo Janine Niepce.
20x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
March of the Nurses committee on strike, boulevard Montparnasse. Paris (14th arrondissement), October 1988. Photo Janine Niepce.
20x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
March of women from the suburbs "Ni putes, ni soumises" (Neither Whores nor submissives) with Olga Trostiansky (deputy mayor of Paris responsible for family and early childhood) and Mouloud Aounit (MRAP, Movement against racism and for friendship between peoples). Paris, March 8, 2003. Photo Catherine Deudon.
40x26 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Planned Parenthood activists during the rally for the reimbursement of abortion (IVG, Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy). Paris, October 23, 1982. Photo Catherine Deudon.
40x26 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Family walking in the countryside near Moulins (France), 1974. Photo Léon Claude Vénézia.
40x26 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Marie Curie (1867-1934), French physicist, in her first laboratory installed in a shed of EPCI, rue Lhomond. Paris (5th arrondissement), 1896-1905. Photo Albert Harlingue.
24x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Each in her own way and in her own domain, great figures have been icons for the women of their generation. Their talent, intelligence, audacity and their courage have removed barriers, broken down walls, won cases in courts that have changed mentalities and patriarchal laws. They opened a way of freedom where all the women could rush.
Colette (1873-1954), French writer, at French photographer Henri Manuel's studio. Photo Henri Manuel.
24x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923), French actress, in "Gismonda" by Victorien Sardou. Photo Collection Roger-Viollet.
24x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Louise Weiss (1893-1983), French writer, feminist, journalist and politician. France, circa 1930. Photo Albert Harlingue.
24x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
General assembly of the feminist movement "Choisir". President: French lawyer Gisèle Halimi. Paris, June 25, 1978. Photo Janine Niepce.
24x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Marguerite Yourcenar (1903-1987), French writer and academician. Paris, on February 5, 1937. Photo Collection Roger-Viollet.
24x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Françoise Sagan (1935-2004), French writer. Saint-Tropez (France), 1956. Photo Bernard Lipnitzki.
30x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Marguerite Duras (1914-1996), French writer. France, 1955. Photo Studio Lipnitzki.
40x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986), French writer. Paris, 1957. Photo Jack Nisberg.
30x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Françoise Giroud (1916-2003), French writer, journalist and politician. France, 1948. Photo Roger Berson.
30x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Simone Veil (1927-2017), French politician. Paris, 1984. Photo Kathleen Blumenfeld.
30x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Josephine Baker (1906-1975), American variety artist, at the Folies-Bergère. Paris (9th arrondissement), 1936. Photo Boris Lipnitzki.
30x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Coco Chanel (1883-1971), French fashion designer. Paris, 1936. Photo Boris Lipnitzki.
30x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Edith Piaf (1915-1963), French singer. France, circa 1955. Photo Gaston Paris.
30x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Barbara (1930-1997), French singer-songwriter, at L'Écluse, accompanied at the piano by Liliane Benelli. Paris, circa 1958. Photo Collection Roger-Viollet.
30x30 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.
Juliette Gréco (1927-2020), French singer and actress. Verderonne (France), 1972. Photo Irmeli Jung.
30x40 cm print. Limited edition of 30 numbered copies.