Hubertine Auclert facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Hubertine Auclert
|
|
|---|---|
Auclert in 1910
|
|
| Born | 10 April 1848 |
| Died | 4 August 1914 (aged 66) |
| Resting place | Père Lachaise Cemetery |
| Occupation | Suffragist, feminist |
Hubertine Auclert (born 10 April 1848 – died 4 August 1914) was a very important French feminist. She worked hard to get women's suffrage, which means the right for women to vote.
Contents
Early Life and Beginnings
Hubertine Auclert was born in a part of France called Allier, in the Auvergne area. Her family was middle-class. When she was 13, her father died. Her mother then sent her to live and study in a Catholic convent.
As a young girl, Hubertine thought about becoming a nun. But she left the convent when she was 16. She didn't get along well with her mother and lived with her uncle for a while. A few years later, she had to go back to the convent. She left for good in 1869 and moved to Paris.
At this time, Emperor Napoleon III was removed from power. The Third Republic was then created. This new government allowed women to start speaking up for their rights. They began asking for changes to the Napoleonic Code. This was a set of laws that made it hard for women to get an education, earn their own money, or get a divorce.
Fighting for Women's Rights
Hubertine Auclert was inspired by other women who were fighting for change, like Maria Deraismes and Léon Richer. She started working with them and became Richer's secretary.
Like many feminists of her time, she was against the strong influence of the church in government. While most French feminists wanted to change laws, Auclert went further. She demanded that women should also have the right to run for public office. She believed that unfair laws would never have been passed if women had been involved in making them.
In 1876, she started a group called Société le droit des femmes (The Rights of Women Society). This group supported women's suffrage. In 1883, the group changed its name to Société le suffrage des femmes (Women's Suffrage Society).
Taking Action for Change
In 1878, an "International Congress on Women's Rights" was held in Paris. However, Auclert was disappointed because it did not support women's right to vote.
Determined, in 1880, Auclert started a tax protest. She argued that if women couldn't vote, they shouldn't have to pay taxes. One of her legal helpers was Antonin Lévrier, who she later married.
On 13 February 1881, she started her own monthly newspaper called La Citoyenne. This paper strongly argued for women's right to vote. Important feminists like Séverine and socialite Marie Bashkirtseff wrote articles for it. Through her writings, Auclert also helped bring the word "feminism" into the English language in the 1890s.
At the Socialist Workers' Congress in Marseille in 1879, Auclert spoke passionately about women's rights. She argued that women needed to be able to earn their own money because of their role as mothers. She was asked to lead a committee to write a statement on women's rights. This statement said women should have the same social, legal, political, and working rights as men. The congress approved it.
In 1884, the French government finally made divorce legal. But Auclert criticized the new law. She felt it was still unfair to women, especially because it didn't let women keep their own earnings. Auclert suggested a new idea: marriage should be a contract where spouses keep their own property separate.
Work in Algeria
In 1888, Auclert and her husband moved to Algeria. They lived there for four years until her husband died. Then she returned to Paris. While in Algeria, Auclert carefully studied the daily lives of Arab women.
She saw that the unfair treatment of women in France was similar to the unfair treatment of colonized people in Algeria. She believed that French people in Algeria tried to keep Arabs uneducated so they could control them.
Auclert's work for Algerian women's rights was similar to her "maternalist" feminism in France. She saw how French officials worked with Arab men to stop Arab women from getting an education. They also respected Islamic practices like child marriages, multiple wives, and trading brides, which limited Arab women's rights.
Auclert felt it was her duty to help Arab women gain the same respect as French women. In Algeria and after returning to France, Auclert took legal steps to help Arab women. She asked for better education and for the end of having multiple wives.
Even though some of her ideas about Islamic culture were influenced by the way people thought during colonial times, she clearly showed how French colonialism negatively affected the societies it settled in. She argued that the unfairness from Islamic law was made worse by French officials working with Arab men. She believed Arab men seemed "backwards" partly because of the racism they faced from French settlers. She felt that because of the male-dominated societies of both Arabs and the French, Algerian women were the most held back.
She wrote about the problems Arab women faced because of Islam in Algerian newspapers like Le Radical Algérien and in her own paper, La Citoyenne. Her work in Algeria, even if she didn't mean it to, sometimes made French colonialism seem more justified. This was because it highlighted the difficult situation of Arab women under Algerian rule.
Eventually, she could no longer afford to publish La Citoyenne, so the newspaper closed. But she kept fighting for women's rights. In 1900, she saw the creation of the "National Council of French Women." This was a large group for feminist organizations in France, and soon all of them supported women's right to vote.
Later Activism and Legacy
In July 1907, married women in France finally gained some control over their own salaries. This was due to the efforts of the Avant-Courrière (Forerunner) association, led by Jeanne Schmahl. However, if a woman bought something with her earnings that she didn't use herself, like furniture, it became her husband's property. This was unless they had a special marriage contract, which was usually only for wealthy couples.
In November 1907, the General Council of the Seine (a local government body in Paris) agreed to support a bill from 1906. This bill, proposed by Paul Dussaussoy, suggested limited voting rights for women.
Even at 60 years old, Auclert continued to push for full equality. In 1908, she famously broke a ballot box during local elections in Paris to protest. In 1910, she and Marguerite Durand bravely presented themselves as candidates in elections for the legislative assembly, even though women were not allowed to run.
Hubertine Auclert is seen as one of the most important people in the history of the French women's rights movement. She continued her activism until she died in 1914, at age 66. This was the day after France declared war on Germany, starting World War I. She is buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. The sculpture on her tomb celebrates "Suffrage des Femmes" (Women's Suffrage).
See also
In Spanish: Hubertine Auclert para niños
