Social Science Research Council

"To Father or to Fight? Mass Conscription and the Politics of Masculine Citizenship, France, 1913-1939, and the United States, 1917-1944"

My dissertation examines national debates regarding military conscription of fathers in France, 1913-1939, and the US, 1917-1944, in order to illuminate the contentious process through which masculine citizenship has been defined, and the uneasy contradictions republican citizenship often contains. While mass conscription is commonly viewed as fundamental to modern citizenship, debates deliberating between fathering versus soldiering reveal that powerful ideologies emphasizing men's paternal roles can pose a serious challenge to the deep-rooted obligation of military service. Though my work draws mainly from feminist accounts of citizenship, I argue that gender-sensitive scholars have not yet paid close attention to the construction of masculine citizenship, implicitly presuming that the modern state has consistently supported males as breadwinners. Yet mass conscription of men into the French and US military challenged the otherwise entrenched benefits that male citizens received as breadwinning heads of families. Debates regarding conscripting fathers reveal that male citizens have not been consistently supported as breadwinners, nor have they necessarily been conscripted into the military as the ultimate duty to state. As a result, this project traces the contentious process through which France determined that fathers were to serve as soldiers like all male citizens, whereas the US determined that fathers could be deferred from "the draft." I use a comparative-historical methodology, and will examine primary archival documents of parliamentary debates, newspapers, publications of involved social movements and their leaders, military planning commissions, manpower commissions, and legislation enacted, utilizing archives around Paris, France, and Washington, DC. Thus, this project is broadly concerned with expanding our understandings of the gendered nature of citizenship. In July, 2004, I will embark upon my first archival research trip to Washington, DC, and will begin my tenure as an IDRF fellowship recipient in January, 2005, when I will embark upon my research trip to Paris, France.