Entre nationaliste culturel et projet moderniste : les contours de l'émancipation des femmes dans l'Algérie postcoloniale : des parcours féminins d'autonomie à Alger

Beyond the traditional models of femininity promoted in nationalist and Islamic discourses and endogenous feminist movements, models of femininity are being formed in Algeria by active, urban, and veiled women. This thesis focuses on the appearance of this new category of women in the city of Algiers. The work falls within a sociohistorical context of re-Islamization, postcolonialism, and a modernization process prompted from above. The latter profoundly modified traditional attachments and led to new identities while relying on the reification of supposedly authentic patriarchal values, which are associated mainly with women's status. These femininities are characterized by their access to new social positions in a relative tension with gender assignments, giving rise to new social practices and modes of subjectivity that do not unfold following forms of protest or activism. However, their visible and widespread nature participates in the permanent process of boundaries renegotiation imposed by gendered norms. The extension of accepted behaviour for women will thus create new inclusion and exclusion norms in the gender order. Hence, emancipatory trajectories emerge without renouncing the feminine dispositions valued by the socio-cultural context to which they belong. These trajectories are based on individuation processes, such as the pursuit of professional success, the adoption of mobile lives, and decision-making in the family while investing and renewing a complex relationship between femininity and appearance / sexual convenience, with the aim of preserving social reputation, that is to say, by staging a modest self. Being, making, or becoming this type of woman implies a cost, for it requires significant efforts on the part of women: to succeed in their professional and domestic careers. These expectations are not required of men. Paradoxically, these fragmented feminity models participate in establishing a social representation of idealised women who are modest, virtuous/responsible, courageous, and believers, unlike men who are instead considered immature and irresponsible. Thus, they become, in a way, the new muses manifesting a feminine triumphalism based on a differential vision of the sexes.