What do "the Mother of Doctrine and the Mother of French Liberalism" mean?

<p>In this article, I discuss the political implication of presenting Staël as either "the mother of liberalism" or "the mother of the doctrine", two expressions coined in 1932 by Albert Thibaudet, a prominent political scholar of the Third Republic. Thibaudet called Staël “the mother of the doctrine” when highlighting her family and social relations with the doctrinaires, including the duc de Broglie and “the mother of liberalism” when emphasizing the relevance of her political thought to Benjamin Constant. While the former label was important in the 1930s and in the aftermath of the WW2, the latter label took an increased importance after the 1990s within the re-emergence of studies on French liberalism. As a result, I see a tension in the way Staël was related principally with the group of doctrinaires in the interwar period and after 1945 and with Constant and the Coppet group in the post-cold war period.</p><p>　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　</p><p>One common point of both periods and until today, is that Staël’s political thought has not been taken up frontally. Although the tendency to characterize her as “mother” within the history of political thought seems to suggest some respect for her role as a female political thinker, I argue that these expressions are in fact a misogynous strategy to sideline her from the history of political thought. This strategy is particularly clear with Thibaudet. At the same time, gender free studies on Staël also started under the Third Republic with Edouard Herriot. He dealt with an unpublished political essay of Staël, discovered at the turn of the century, before he moved on to a very successful political career with the radical party, a moderate centrist party.</p><p>　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　</p><p>To conclude, I lay main emphasis on the positive reception of Staël’s political thought among libéraux of the Third Republic. Despite their misogynous aspects, it is undeniable that men such as Thibaudet, Herriot and Aron learned considerably from Staël’s political thought, and I would like to deepen my discussion on this point in the future.</p>