added to perceptions of their backwardness or
eroticism. If the French could access their private
lives and erode their status as guardians of local tra-
dition by instilling French values the women would
pass them on to their children. To educate North
African women, the French would have to break
down the barriers of cultural resistance that had
developed during the occupation. French women,
the colonial authorities believed, were best suited
to this task. In 1900 the French feminist Hubertine
Auclert wrote a treatise on the condition of Alge-
rian women. Derogatory in tone, it was not anti-
colonial but rather an appeal to the colonial
authorities to improve the Algerian woman’s lot.
As they settled into the Maghrib some French
women followed in Auclert’s footsteps in an
attempt to draw North African women into the
French fold (Bugéja 1921, Célarie 1925).
North African women’s response to these and
other attempts at their colonization varied over
time and space. During the early decades of colo-
nization, North African women were encumbered
with a double yoke of domination: colonial and
gender. Algerian women undoubtedly felt the colo-
nial burden most intensely due to the length and
intensity of the French occupation. Land sequestra-
tion and the imposition of French legal structures
caused material and moral deprivation that af-
fected women with particular intensity. The com-
modification of land and the French principle that
all land was alienable had an impact on family
structure and size. Together with the imposition of
heavy taxation and protracted warfare (in Algeria
and Morocco) families had to sell their land to meet
the costs of occupation. Furthermore, until the
Second World War, with the exception of the elites
and some urbanites, most North African women
remained illiterate, making it difficult for them to
respond to juridical and fiscal constraints. Women
reacted to the changes in their situation by
retrenching within the family, which became a bul-
wark against colonialism. Until the final stages of
the nationalist struggle for independence, women’s
resistance was largely passive. It was effective,
nonetheless, insofar as they created an oral tradi-
tion of anticolonialism that was passed from one
generation to the next.
North African women did not, however, remain
totally removed from colonial society. Large num-
bers of them entered domestic service in settler
homes. Whereas the relationship between the two
groups of women symbolized the colonial frame-
work and represented the major contact point
between the two, it nonetheless served as a site of
acculturation for both.70 colonialism and imperialism
Schools for girls were established in North Africa
on a sporadic basis in the period following the Ferry
laws (1880s). To begin with their focus was on skill
acquisition, whether it was French-style home man-
agement or proficiency in certain arts and crafts.
Missionary schools were among the first to appear,
but due to parental reticence in the face of a
Christian environment, enrolment was limited.
From 1919 onwards there was a slow expansion of
educational opportunities for women, but women
only really started to enjoy the privileges of educa-
tion after 1945. A French education introduced
women to French republican concepts providing
them with the intellectual arsenal with which to
refute colonialism. At decolonization, therefore,
educated North African women, such as the
Tunisian Gisèle Halimi, entered the public arena
taking their place alongside their male counter-
parts. It was not only an educated minority that
took part in the struggles for independence, how-
ever. Literate and illiterate alike, North African
women joined and aided the nationalist movements
in the hope of ridding themselves of the double
yoke of colonialism and gender inequality.
Although they achieved the former, the latter
proved to be a longer struggle.Bibliography
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and twentieth centuries, Great Britain ruled over
millions of Muslim women. Often using women’s