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Images Le Monde.fr
Léa Girardot

How France's 1975 amicable divorce law transformed gender relations

By  and  (Development)
Published today at 5:00 am (Paris)

3 min read Lire en français

In the years leading up to the adoption of the July 11, 1975, law on amicable divorce, the family model in France underwent profound changes. "We started moving away from a very rigid vision of gender roles – the father at work, the mother at home – that had been well established since the 1930s," explained sociologist François de Singly, a specialist in family and couple dynamics at Université Paris Cité. "Women, including mothers, were entering the workforce en masse. It was the beginning of the consumer society, with a dual-income family model."

Marriage became more egalitarian, and the constraints of married life loosened. Legislation that amended matrimonial regimes in July 1965 – finally allowing married women to manage their own assets and employment contracts as they saw fit, without needing their husband's consent – had only been in place for 10 years.

"Before this law, marriage was an entirely patriarchal institution," said Céline Bessière, a family sociologist at Université Paris-Dauphine. "This shift did not happen without friction. Since mothers began working, journalists spoke about children being 'orphans' during the day," said de Singly.

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