Conservative scholars and Catholic activists in France have been denouncing a “theory of gender” that they believe is guiding the decisions of François Hollande’s Socialist government. They’ve marched in the streets with signs saying “No to the Theory of Gender,” “We Want Sex, Not Gender,” and “Leave Us Our Gender Stereotypes.” They’ve set up websites such as the Observatory for the Theory of Gender. They’ve organized parent groups.

And last December some of them — mobilized by emails, tweets, and SMSs — launched a “day of retreat from school,” urging parents to keep their children at home one day a month in reaction to the spread of the “theory of gender” in public schools.

Intersecting with the violent and intense national protests against gay marriage that started in 2013, this ferment appears to announce a broader national crisis about gender and the family. Along with French socialism’s neoliberal turn and the National Front’s rise, the crisis is bringing into focus ugly, neglected dimensions of contemporary French politics, touching on gender, immigration, reproduction, and the limits of secularism and universalism.