Fascism,Fatherhood,and the Family in Interwar France: The Case of Antoine Rédier and the Légion

As the leader and founder of the first French “fascist” political organization, the Légion, Antoine Rédier allows us to begin to trace how gender and the family played a pivotal role in the fundamental ideologies of the major fascist and extreme-right political movements of interwar France. Though short-lived, the Légion was importantly the first of several groups on the extreme Right to make gender, the family, and fatherhood central to their political philosophies. By doing so, Rédier and other such political leaders helped pave the way for the transition to the Vichy regime in 1940.