Archives du Féminisme


Archives du Féminisme is a French non-profit organization established in 2000 whose main objective is to preserve feminist historical sources. The associated collection, also named Archives du féminisme, is published by the Rennes University Press and promotes the spread of research and findings concerning women's liberation movements.

Activity

The association collects historical documents from various associations, holds colloquia and study days, and produces publications. It provides online resources, including articles and reports, bibliographies, historical sources, exhibitions as well as a "Guide of sources", a database of sources pertaining to French feminist history.

Partnerships

The Centre des archives du féminisme in co-operation with the Bibliothèque Marguerite Durand welcomes funds collected by the Archives du Féminisme association. Established in 2000, the CAF is integrated, as a specialised fund, into the University of Angers library. It comprises private archive funds covering the period from the 19th to the 21st century.

Publications

Archives du Féminisme has two organs of information: a website and a news bulletin.
The Guide to Feminist Historical Sources compiled under the direction of Christine Bard, Annie Metz and Valérie Neveu, which indexes and describes collections of archival materials related to feminism, throughout France, was published six years after the creation of the association, in 2006. Born of the observation that the search for sources on feminism was difficult because of the fragmentation of these sources and the obscurity of their locations, this guide lists feminist resources for researchers and is divided into four parts: "public archive services", "private associations, libraries, museums and archive centres", "audiovisual sources" and "webography."
Work on updating this guide is proposed on the association's site in the section "source guide." This section includes approximately 369 index cards on feminist resource centres, their locations and their contents.
In February 2017, the Dictionary of Feminists in France, 18th-21st century, a project supervised by Christine Bard with the co-operation of Sylvie Chaperon, was released. Two hundred collaborators participated in drafting and preparing this work, which offers 550 biographies of people who made history in the feminist movement.