SOURCE: Delphy, Christine. “The Invention of French Feminism: An Essential Move.” Yale French Studies, no. 97 (2000): 166-97.

In the following essay, Delphy presents an overview of “French Feminism,” positing that this term was coined by American feminists who felt the need to displace their own controversial ideas onto another school of criticism.

“French Feminism” is a baffling topic for everybody, and it is no less so for feminists from France than for feminists from the United States or Britain. There are many aspects to this topic and first of all, of course: what is “French Feminism”?

“French Feminism” is not feminism in France; that must be said at the outset. Feminists in France don't need to call their feminism a particular name any more than American feminists call theirs “American Feminism.”

Most feminists from France find it extraordinary to be presented, when abroad, with a version of their feminism...