Having come to the end of a century of the history of women and socialism, let us try to answer the four questions with which we began: (1) Why did the alliance between feminism and socialism fail after such promising beginnings? (2) What ideals and ideologies governed the socialists' conduct toward feminism and toward women in general? (3) Why did the SFIO never develop a strong women's movement? (4) Would separate women's groups and a more autonomous women's organisation have helped the party to recruit more women? What, in short, is the heritage which weighs upon the new PS today preventing it from attracting women into its ranks, given that at the end of 1977 women constituted less than 20 per cent of the membership of the party? This is roughly the same proportion as in the German SPD – in 1914!

The alliance between feminism and socialism was begun in confusion, written by leaders without followers, and dissolved as soon as the contrasting social bases of the two movements became evident. The origins of the alliance are to be found in the continuing mixture of generous and progressive ideas which probably reached its most intense period with the revolution of 1848, but which was still strong, even in the aftermath of the Commune. The grievances of the oppressed must have a common base, it was thought.