French morality, under the regulation system

In French Morality, under the Regulation System, Julie-Victoire Daubié offers a rigorous critique of the regulated prostitution system in nineteenth-century France, examining its legal, social, and moral consequences with documentary precision. The book belongs to the tradition of reformist social inquiry, combining statistical observation, moral philosophy, and sharp polemic. Daubié exposes how state regulation, ostensibly framed as public hygiene and order, in fact institutionalizes gendered injustice, punishing women while protecting male privilege. Its style is lucid, argumentative, and ethically urgent, reflecting the broader realist and reformist currents of the period. Daubié, the first French woman to earn the baccalauréat, was a pioneering feminist, journalist, and social critic whose work consistently addressed the structural inequities facing women. Her intellectual formation in economics, education, and public policy made her especially attentive to the intersection of law and lived experience. This book emerges naturally from her lifelong commitment to women's rights and from her determination to challenge institutions that disguised oppression as civic necessity. This is an essential work for readers interested in feminist history, French social thought, and the politics of morality. Daubié's analysis remains strikingly relevant, offering a powerful reminder of how systems of regulation can normalize inequality under the language of reform.