Women of the Civilizing Mission: An Analysis of Women’s Agency in the Context of French Imperial North Africa
Abstract:
During the early 1800s, France looked toward Africa as a blank canvas on which to achieve their mission civilisatrice (Civilizing Mission) which was founded on the rationale that colonization was a necessary and God-given right in order to modernize non-Western societies and establish racial and ethnic superiority over seemingly inferior populations. By exposing indigenous peoples to French education, culture, and religion, a new age of imperial power was formed. Women were essential in the introduction of all three subjects to the North African population. In this project, I assert that the agency of women from both African and French populations and the furtherment of the French Empire are mutually dependent on one another. Not only did women lead in the advancement of French culture and religion through education and missionary work but the presence of French Imperialism gave women roles and authority in positions they would have not otherwise held. Women were given leading roles in the French colonial realm despite whether or not they were in favor of or discordant with French Imperial control. French imperialism gave all women–– both French and African–– agency and essential roles in defining cultural belonging and what it means to be French beginning in 19th century imperial North Africa and continuing through the era of resistance, decolonization, and the construction of new African nations.