This is the first book (in either English or French) to offer readers an overview of women's experience of the Second World War, the liberation, and its immediate aftermath in France. It examines women's every-day lives and the role they played in both collaboration and resistance. The author not only syntheses recent scholarship on the subject in French and English but she also draws on her own extensive research (including oral sources) in Toulouse, Paris, and West Brittany. An often moving account, this is a very important addition to French history and women's history literature.

Introduction. Part One: Women's Lives During the War and the Occupation 1939-44. 1. Financial Resources and Paid Employment. 2. Physical Survival. 3. Collaborations. 4. Resistances. Part Two: Women's Lives After the Occupation 1944-48 - A Liberation? 5. Women and the Purges. 6. Everyday Life and Paid Employment 1944-48. 7. Women Gain New Rights and Become Citizens. Conclusion. Chronology of main events. Glossary and List of Abbreviations. Map. Bibliographical Essay.