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10 Important French Feminists You Need To Know About

In recent years I have become involved with the feminist movement. I have always felt passionate about equal rights for women, and I started learning about feminist theory when I was completing my masters degree.

At the encouragement of a friend, I joined a feminist book club here in Paris that meets once a month at Shakespeare & Company called 鈥�and the rest is history! I鈥檓 now super focused on reading as much feminist literature as I can to educate myself, and in the hopes of making a difference.

France is no stranger to feminism, with the first feminist activists dating back to the 18th century. Today I鈥檓 going to be filling you in on 10 important French feminists that you need to know about!

1. Olympe de Gouges

Portrait of Olympe de Gouges by Alexandre Kucharski – WikiCommons

Olympe de Gouges was born in 1748. She was a playwright and an activist, and she published the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen in 1791. De Gouges wrote the declaration in response to Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which was written at the beginning of the French Revolution.

De Gouges was also very passionate about the abolition of slavery in the French colonies at the time. An activist on all levels! As more time progressed, de Gouges became more and more ardent in her activism. she wrote pamphlets, gave speeches and released a poster which she called, Les trois urnes, ou le salut de la Patrie, par un voyageur a茅rien (“The Three Urns, or the Salvation of the Fatherland, by an Aerial Traveller“). The poster called for a “constitutional” monarchy, which went against the principles of the Revolution. 

De Gouges also critiqued the French Revolution for not focusing on equal human rights for all. She was subsequently accused and convicted of treasure for her work, and was guillotined. She is 1 of only 3 women who met their fate with the guillotine during the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.

2. Paule Minck

Photograph of Paule Minck, 1875 by J. M. Lopez – WikiCommons

Paule Minck was born in 1839, and was a feminist activist throughout the mid to late 19th century. She was unhappily married to a Polish aristocrat, and scholars believe that this unhappy marriage (that ended in divorce) may have sparked her interest in women鈥檚 rights.

In 1866, Minck was part of a new feminist group in Paris called the Soci茅t茅 pour la Revendication du Droit des Femmes (Society for the Claim of Women’s Rights), which focused mostly on improving education for girls and women in France.

Minck believed that the first step to obtaining equal rights for women could only be achieved through the suppression of capitalism. She supported the Paris Commune uprising in 1871, and, along with other important feminist at the time like Louise Michel, she organized a Women鈥檚 Union.

She survived the Paris Commune and went on to continue to fight for women鈥檚 rights throughout her life, and was well known for her radical feminist principles.

3. Louise Michel

Louise Michel, 1880 – WikiCommons

Louise Michel is another French feminist that lived and fought for the Paris Commune! Along with Minck, she was also a member of the Women鈥檚 Union. The Union fought for better education for women and girls, gender and wage equality, and the right for a woman to divorce her husband.

Michel is sometimes referred to as the “Red Virgin of Montmartre” for her involvement with the Paris Commune uprising in 1871. She joined the National Guard and fought alongside other activists from March 18 to May 28, 1871. Women in general played a huge role in the uprising.

Michel survived the uprising, and went on to famously say in her memoirs that, “It is true, perhaps, that women like rebellions. We are no better than men in respect to power, but power has not yet corrupted us.”

Michel urged her fellow activists to not only fight for men鈥檚 rights, but the rights of everyone. She was eventually deported for her involvement with the Commune to New Caledonia for 7 years. When she returned to France, she continued to fight for revolution and equal rights, and is now known as one of the most important anarchists in French history.  

4. Jeanne-Elizabeth Schmahl

Jeanne-Elizabeth Schmahl, 1911 by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle – WikiCommons

Jeanne-Elizabeth Schmahl was a French woman that was born in England in 1846. She moved to Paris to study medicine and married a French man, and worked as a midwife鈥檚 assistant.

In 1909, Schmahl founded the French Union for Women’s Suffrage, in the hopes of getting the vote for French women. Schmahl is one of the most moderate feminists on this list, and felt strongly that the right to vote needed to be introduced slowly but surely. Women in France actually did not get to vote until 1945.

Because Schmahl took a less militant approach to women鈥檚 suffrage, she was able to garner a lot of support from the aristocratic and bourgeois class in Paris. She felt that the first step for the vote was through small local elections, which she wanted to reach through peaceful means.

Schmahl died in 1915, long before women got the vote, but she was a major leader in the suffragette movement in France.

5. Simone de Beauvoir

Simone de Beauvoir in 1955 – WikiCommons

Simone de Beauvoir is perhaps the most well known French feminist on this list. Her book, The Second Sex is known around the world and is studied in schools across France and elsewhere. She is a notable figure in what is called “second-wave feminism,” a period of activism that began in the United States in 1960 and went on for at least two decades.

De Beauvoir was a writer and philosopher, and is also known for her relationship with Jean-Paul Sartre. The Second Sex discusses women鈥檚 oppression, and introduces a concept called “feminist existentialism.” The most famous quote from the book is, “one is not born a woman, but becomes one,” meaning that society influences gender differences, not biology.

In 1971, de Beauvoir penned a manifesto called “The Manifesto of the 343” which was a petition that urged for the decriminalization of abortion. 343 women signed the petition, which opened with a foreword from de Beauvoir, stating that they had had an abortion.

De Beauvoir fought for women鈥檚 rights for her entire life, until her death in 1986.

6. Antoinette Fouque

Stand dedicated to Antoinette Fouque during the 2015 Paris Book Fair, Paris expo Porte de Versailles by ActuaLitt茅 – WikiCommons

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Antoinette Fouque was a French psychoanalyst and feminist who was born in 1936. She founded the French Women’s Liberation group in 1968 along with Monique Wittig (more on her coming up!), which fought for women鈥檚 rights in marriage, and the right to contraception and abortion.

Fouque was an intellectual, and after she was married and had a child, she began to realize the difficulties that intellectual women encountered after they had become mothers and wives. She also signed “The Manifesto of the 343.”

In 1974, she assisted in forming a publishing house called “脡ditions des femmes” ( “Women鈥檚 Editions”), which published feminist literature and pamphlets. Although she was deeply involved in second-wave feminism, she did not agree with de Beauvoir on many points, and rejected her book The Second Sex. 

Thanks to Fouque, women had a place to publish their writings in a literary world that was dominated by men.

7. Monique Wittig

Monique Wittig in 1964 by Gobonobo – WikiCommons

Monique Wittig was a prominent French feminist that was concerned with lesbian鈥檚 roles within society and the feminist movement. She often wrote about overcoming gender barriers, role and stereotypes, and was against what she called the “heterosexual contract.” In other words, Wittig was against the pressures put on women to marry a man and bare his children.

I recently finished Wittig鈥檚 collection of essays called The Straight Mind, which urges people to stop categorizing writing produced by men or women. For Wittig, there shouldn鈥檛 be a difference, saying that, “In literature, I do not separate women and men. One is a writer, or one is not. This is a mental space where sex is not determining.”

In her novel Les Gu茅rill猫res (The Warriors), Wittig creates a fictional world where female warriors have overcome patriarchy and created a society of their own. It is a commentary on the fact that if women could only stand together, patriarchal society could be defeated.

8. Gis猫le Halimi

Gis猫le Halimi during a rally for the 鈥淔ront de Gauche鈥� at the Zenith in Paris, in 2009 by Marie-Lan Nguyen – WikiCommons

Gis猫le Halimi is a French lawyer and feminist. In 1971, she founded the feminist group Choisir (which means “to choose” in English), which was created to defend and protect the women who signed the “Manifesto of the 343.”

Halimi also fought for the imprisoned Algerian activist named Djamila Boupacha, who was captured after her role in militant activities in Algeria. Boupacha was raped and torturtured in order to get a confession. Halimi published a book in 1961 defending Boupacha.

Halimi has been deeply involved in many cases on women鈥檚 rights over the course of her  career. Additionally, Choisir played a major role in passing a law that would allow contraception and abortion for women, which was led by Simone Veil (you guessed it鈥�more on Veil coming up!).

9. Simone Veil

Simone Veil in 1984 by Rob C. Croes / Anefo – WikiCommons

Simone Veil played a huge part in passing a law that would legalize abortion in France. It is sometimes referred to as the Veil Act.

Veil was a politician and a lawyer, and worked as the Minister of Health under the French president  Val茅ry Giscard d’Estaing. Veil lived a very compelling life: she survived a Nazi concentration camp, she was a member of the Acad茅mie Fran莽aise, and used her power as the Minister of Health to legalize abortion. She also legalized contraception, and made it more readily available to women in France.

She is one of only five women who is buried in the Panth茅on in Paris, and was buried there in 2018.

10. H茅l猫ne Cixous

H茅l猫ne Cixous in 2011 by Claude TRUONG-NGOC – WikiCommons

H茅l猫ne Cixous is a French feminist, activist and writer. She too felt that the literary sphere was dominated by men, and she fought to change this. She focused mainly on “茅criture f茅minine,” or “feminine writing,” and in 1975 published an essay called “The Laugh of the Medusa” on the subject.

In the essay, Cixous states that, “woman must write her self: must write about women and bring women to writing, from which they have been driven away as violently as from their bodies.” She argues that women鈥檚 sexuality has been dominated and repressed by men, and it is up to women themselves to reclaim it!

Cixous continued to write throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, and she was a professor at several universities in the United States and France.

Conclusion

I hope you have learned a lot about French feminists from the 10 women I have presented here. If you鈥檙e interested in learning more about feminism in France I definitely encourage you to do some research on your own, and to read some of the texts that I mentioned above!

If you want to learn more in general about French history and Paris, why not join one of our walking tours? We have plenty of options to choose from, and our local guides are sure to know some extra information on the women that I鈥檝e written about here. Click here to learn more and to make your booking!