La Fabrique des insurgées / The Factory of Insurgent Women — 1869: la première grève d’ouvrières

A black-and-white graphic novel about the first strike by women workers in France. Lyon, 1869: in a silk-spinning mill, the ovalistes work twelve-hour days for miserable wages, live in unhealthy lodgings and are poorly fed. When the employers refuse their demands for better pay and working conditions, the women take to the streets and launch a general strike. The story places their struggle against the background of industrialisation, rural exodus and the harsh conditions imposed on women workers. It also shows how, even after the strike is won, men claim its benefits while the women remain subject to patriarchal power. The book is published by Delcourt in the Histoire & Histoires collection; 128 pages.