Karen Offen received her Ph.D. from Stanford University, California and is a historian and independent scholar affiliated as a Senior Scholar with the Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University.

General introduction: 'what do women want?' and quotations; Part I. Familiarization: Romance with the Republic, 1870s-1889: 1. Relaunching the Republican campaign for women's rights: 2. Educators, medical and social scientists, and population experts debate the woman question, 1870-1889; 3: The politics of the family, women's work, and public morality, 1870-1890; 4. The revolutionary centennial: promoting women and women's rights at the 1889 International Exposition in Paris; Part II. Encounter: the Third Republic Faces Feminist Claims, 1890-1900: Quotations and introductory remarks; 5. The birth and 'take-off' of feminism in republican France; 6: Rights or protection for working women?; 7. Must maternity be women's form of patriotism? 8. The new century greets the woman question, 1900; Part III. Climax: Mainstreaming the Woman Question, 1901-1914: Quotations and introductory remarks; 9. Building a force to reckon with the Republic: The Conseil National des Femmes Françaises and its allies, 1900-1914; 10. Defining, historicizing, contesting, and defending feminism: early 20th century developments; 11. Refocusing the state: depopulation, maternity, and the quest for a woman-friendly state; 12. Emerging labor issues: equal pay for equal work, travail à domicile, and women's right to work; 13. 'The alpha and omega of our demands' - the women's suffrage campaigns heat up, 1906-1914; Part IV. Anti-Climax: the Great War and its Aftermath: Quotations and introductory remarks; 14. The Great War and the woman question; 15. 'Half the human race': epilogue and conclusion; Afterword; Appendix: important dates for the woman question debates; Index.