Christine Bard is a professor of contemporary history at the Université d’Angers, a senior member of the Institut Universitaire de France, and a specialist in women's history, feminism and anti-feminism. Her books include 2021's Mon Genre d'Histoire ("My Gender History") and Féminismes: 150 Ans d'Idées Reçues ("Feminism: 150 Years of Preconceived Ideas"), published last year.

This conversation has been condensed for clarity.

The French mass rape trial has been compared to the trials that have marked the history of feminist struggle. What's your take on that?

The courts have long been a focal point for the fight against violence against women. Certain trials, because of the emblematic nature of the cases, have left their mark on history and served as catalysts, accelerating the evolution of awareness and legislative changes.

It is somewhat forgotten today but there is the case of the trial of the Bac couple, in which a working-class couple was tried in 1954 and 1955 for letting their fourth child die due to lack of care. Their seven-year prison sentence, which raised public awareness of the importance of unwanted pregnancies, was one of the starting points of the French family planning movement and the legalization of contraception in 1967.

In 1972, the Bobigny trial was a founding event in the legislative process that led to the liberalization of abortion. Gisèle Halimi's defense of Marie-Claire (age 16, pregnant by her rapist) and the women who helped her to have an abortion highlighted the reality of clandestine abortions. There is no doubt that, in its power and impact, the Pelicot rape case is already one of the great trials that have marked the history of feminism since the 1950s.

What parallels can be drawn with the trial in Aix-en-Provence which led to the adoption of a law redefining rape as a crime?

In 1978, in Aix-en-Provence, three men went on trial for the rape of two women in Marseille's creeks. At the time, rape was tried as a misdemeanor offense and was often punished by relatively lenient sentences. The trial helped to lift the taboo on rape, reveal the intimate trauma it represents and bring about changes in the law.

The comparison between the two trials is justified not only by the scale of the facts and the emotions they arouse but also by what they reveal about the rape culture that reigns in our society. As in Aix-en-Provence, where the trial was held in public and the victims played an active part in the feminist mobilization, Gisèle Pelicot today has the immense courage to face up to the public nature of the proceedings at the Avignon court. The hearings reveal the banality of the defendants' profiles, many of whom are well integrated in society.

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