French Catholics and Gender in Education : analysis of a misunderstanding (1995-2014)

Abstract

International audienceFor several years, a part of the French Catholics has strongly opposed the so-called « Gender Theory ». In such a context, in 2010, the French Ministry of National Education introduced a new curriculum in the subject of Biology, for High Schools' Students (age 16-17). Its firt chapter is dedicated to the following topic : « Becoming a woman or a man » ; it makes a distinction between sexual identities or sexual roles in the public sphere, and sexual orientations in the private sphere. In 2013, the French Government created a « Guide for equality between girls and boys at schools » (« ABCD de l'égalité »). The French Catholics' protest has been strong against these educational measures, whereas at the same time they conducted an opposition to the same-sex marriage draft law. This paper aims to analyse why and how the French Catholics mobilized against what they call the « introduction of the gender theory » in national education. On a first level, I will suggest a network map of Catholic mobilization : blogs, websites, social networks … have been particularly used to build a rhetoric and social mobilization. On a second level, I will defend the hypothesis that this mobilization cannot be understood without an historical frame : since 1995, catholic associations and think-tanks have developped their activities in such a way that they were able to strongly mobilize in 2010s. The sources I use for this paper are both Internet and medias, especially Catholic ones, but also interviews I've realized with Catholic leaders and militants. This paper is part of my post-doctoral research, which analyses the contemporary French Catholicism reorganization