Au prisme de Louise Weiss ? Les femmes dans les mouvements d’assistance aux réfugiés en France durant la Première Guerre mondiale ; In Louise Weiss’s prism? Women in refugee assistance movements in France during World War I

During the First World War, many relief committees were created to assist the two million refugees. Some of these organizations were improvised on the arrival of convoys by women determined to serve the nation at war and to become involved in helping the victims of the conflict. This was the case of Louise Weiss, then a young student, who founded a committee in Saint-Quay-Portrieux, on the Breton coast. Other women’s organizations existed before the war, such as local branches of the National Council of French Women and the Union of Women of France. From 1915, the network of these social assistance committees began to be structured. The biggest official organizations still included many women, all from local elites. But they were excluded from the positions of executive responsibilities. As the wives of prefects, mayors or other notables, they often represented their husbands but also acted to give themselves a profile. This compassionate self-promotion must not overshadow the work of independent women’s committees. Often set up early on, in many places they compensated for the inertia of public authorities and served as models when the authorities set up institutional committees where gender relations always favored men. ; Durant la Première Guerre mondiale, de nombreux comités furent créés afin de porter assistance aux quelques 2 millions de réfugiés. La plupart de ces œuvres furent improvisée dès l’arrivée des premiers convois par des femmes déterminées à servir la nation en s’impliquant dans le secours aux victimes de guerre. Parmi elles, se trouvait Louise Weiss, alors jeune étudiante réfugiée à Saint-Quay-Portrieux, sur la côte nord bretonne, où elle fonda un petit comité de secours. D’autres organisations féminines préexistaient à la guerre, à l’instar des relais locaux du Comité national des femmes françaises ou de l’Union des femmes de France. À partir de 1915, le réseau tissé par ces comités d’assistance commença à se structurer. Les organisations les plus importantes comportaient toujours un grand ...