In spite of recent scholarship, conservative women are still a blind spot of the analysis of political representation. English speaking countries might be considered as an exception for the pioneer studies on this topic partly because of the role played by massive organization of conservative women such as the Primrose league in the United Kingdom, or more recently the « Tea Party » in the United States of America. This paper, aims to challenge a common prejudice that conservative women entered only recently in politics. More specifically, I would argue here that a gendered perspective on the genesis of the modern political arena leads to the acknowledgment of the crucial role played by conservative women for conservative parties. Basing the argumentation on the empirical study of conservative women electoral committees and the female branch of a conservative party the Ligue patriotique des Françaises (Patriotic League of Frenchwomen), this paper will emphasize the sexual division of the political labour that occurred since the beginning of the modern political competition in France, as it happened in England within the conservative organizations. It will address the role played by these women on the political agenda, on the way political competition is organized and political culture is shaped by gender dichotomy. In doing so, it will provide a new explanation for the French paradox of citizenship – the exclusion of women from the suffrage until 1944 – by insisting on the role played by these organizations in the legitimization of a “gendered citizenship”.
