Women and Mass Consumer Society in Postwar France

Women And Mass Consumer Society In Postwar France Examines The Emergence Of A Citizen Consumer Role For Women During Postwar Modernization And Reconstruction In France, Integrating The History Of Economic Modernization With That Of Women And The Family. This Role Both Celebrated The Power Of The Woman Consumer And Created A Gendered Form Of Citizenship That Did Not Disrupt The Sexual Hierarchy Of Home, Polity, And Marketplace. Redefining Needs And Renegotiating Concepts Of Taste, Value, And Thrift, Women And Their Families Drove Mass Consumer Society Through Their Demands And Purchases At The Same Time That Their Very Need To Consume Came To Define Them-- Machine Generated Contents Note: Introduction; 1. Consumers For The Nation: Women, Politics, And Citizenship; 2. The Productivity Drive In The Home And Gaining Comfort On Credit; 3. For Better And For Worse: Marriage And Family In The Consumer Society; 4. Can A Man With A Refrigerator Make A Revolution?: Redefining Class In The Postwar Years; 5. The Salon Des Arts Me;nagers: Learning To Consume In Postwar France; Epilogue. Rebecca J. Pulju. Machine Generated Contents Note: Introduction; 1. Consumers For The Nation: Women, Politics, And Citizenship; 2. The Productivity Drive In The Home And Gaining Comfort On Credit; 3. For Better And For Worse: Marriage And Family In The Consumer Society; 4. Can A Man With A Refrigerator Make A Revolution?: Redefining Class In The Postwar Years; 5. The Salon Des Arts Me;nagers: Learning To Consume In Postwar France; Epilogue. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Cover 1 Frontmatter 2 Contents 8 List of Figures and Tables 10 Acknowledgments 12 Abbreviations 14 Introduction 16 The Consensus for Modernization: State Planning 18 The Role of the Citizen Consumer 24 Women's Citizenship, "Normalcy," and the Baby Boom 31 Organization of the Book 34 1 - Consumers for the Nation 42 Creating a Voice for the Consumer 44 Defining Women's Citizenship 49 The Politics of Everyday Life 54 2 - The Productivity Drive in the Home and Gaining Comfort on Credit 74 Productivity in the Home 77 The Consumer Credit Debate 88 Educating Citizen Consumers and Advocating the "Modern Form of Saving" 96 The Cost of Credit and the Expansion of the Market 103 3 - For Better and For Worse 110 Choosing Home and Family 112 Defining New Needs and Driving Economic Change 125 The Desire for Durables and Structural Change in Rural France 136 Spending Money on the Home 145 Liberation through Domestic Consumption? 150 4 - "Can a Man with a Refrigerator Make a Revolution?" 158 Standardized Living in the Classless Society 159 The New Middle Class 164 Working Women: "This Machine, She's a Socialist" 176 The Democratization of Modernity 187 5 - The Salon des arts ménagers 195 The Evolution of the Salon des arts ménagers 196 Creating Citizen Consumers at the Salon des arts ménagers 203 The Fairy Homemaker: The Perfect Consumer 210 The Housewife Speaks 217 Epilogue 225 Failed Promises of Equality 227 May 1968 and the Rejection of Liberation through Consumption 230 End of the Market Community and the Role of Consumer for the Nation 237 Bibliography 244 Index 270 9781107001350 "Women and Mass Consumer Society in Postwar France examines the emergence of a citizen consumer role for women during postwar modernization and reconstruction in France, integrating the history of economic modernization with that of women and the family. This role both celebrated the power of the woman consumer and created a gendered form of citizenship that did not disrupt the sexual hierarchy of home, polity, and marketplace. Redefining needs and renegotiating concepts of taste, value, and thrift, women and their families drove mass consumer society through their demands and purchases at the same time that their very need to consume came to define them"--Rabat de la jaquette. Provided by publisher This title examines the emergence of a citizen consumer role for women during postwar modernization and reconstruction in France