Mixité and Maturity in Edith Wharton's French Ways and their Meaning

Abstract

Recent discussion in France surrounding the concept of mixité, or the free association of men and women in society—largely spurred by national discussions about French identity and the challenges posed by some immigrant groups advocating for a greater degree of gender separation in public spaces such as swimming pools and doctors’ offices—brings fresh relevance to Edith Wharton's 1919 French Ways and Their Meaning. Wharton's decidedly Francophilic text proposes French mixité as a model for emulation in America, and suggests that a freer mingling of men and women in society will allow for greater cultural, intellectual, and artistic refinement generally. France, “the most grown up of the nations” according to Wharton, enjoys cultural superiority and a ripe, mature civilization largely due to its progressive views of the appropriateness of congenial relations between men and women. It is only in emulating the French model of gender relations by adopting a greater measure of mixité that America can achieve maturity as a civilization and experience the full flowering of artistic and cultural life of which Wharton believes her capable.

Keywords:

• Edith Wharton
• World War One
• Mixité
• Veil
• Burqa
• Gender