When the state defends the cause of women.

Summary Improving the status of women and challenging gender inequalities was one of the most significant social transformations of the 20th century. What was the role of public policy in this social change? This is the question that Anne Revillard seeks to answer in her book 'La cause des femmes dans l'État. A France-Quebec Comparison'*. She approaches it by studying the evolution of multiple governmental institutions (ministries, secretariats of state, advisory councils) which, since the 1960s, have been responsible for promoting women's rights. The diversity of names given to these institutions - "condition féminine", "droits des femmes", "égalité", "statut de la femme" - betrays their fragility and translates the mutation of behaviors, values and meanings over time (First paragraph).