The young maids at the Carspach domestic training school

Synopsis

In the 1960s, in the countryside of southern Alsace, Marie-France, Anne-Marie, and Bernadette enrolled at the Carspach Domestic Science School to learn everything a good wife needs to know before marriage: embroidery, cooking, sewing, childcare, home economics, and the basics of French and mathematics. Coming from working-class backgrounds, they were admitted free of charge to this renowned school, run by nuns, where they shared classes with the daughters of wealthy industrialists from Mulhouse. In exchange, they had to work hard for the school, handling maintenance of the grounds, farm work, and preparing daily meals for the 300 students. They were called the “Petites Marthe,” after Martha, Jesus’s servant in the Bible. After two years of schooling, at the age of 16, they would become domestic workers. From this experience of authoritarian and moralizing education, each would follow her own path to emancipation to build her life as a woman.