Abstract
French colonial domination of Việt Nam led to major economic and social transformations in the early 20th century. In addition to economic exchanges with metropolitan France, there was the circulation of ideas, techniques and material culture from the West. With the end, in 1918, of the mandarin competitions that produced exclusively male elites, girls gained access to Franco-Vietnamese public education and networks of private and Catholic schools, and for a handful, to French universities. This lesson analyzes how women seized upon the concept of modernity, questioning their identity as women and exploring new gender relations within the couple and the family. I will evoke the first wave of Vietnamese feminism, notably through the emergence of an activist press(Nữ giới chung/Son de cloche du genre féminin, Phụ Nữ Tân Văn/Gazettedes femmes, Đàn bà mới/Femmes nouvelles) and the access of a minority of women to new professions. Women are also actively participating in new spaces of Artistic creation : literature in quốc ngữ, new poetry, painting, modern and renovated theater(kịch nói, cải lương).
