Jeanne Deroin
Encyclopedia
Jeanne Deroin was a French
socialist feminist.
Born in Paris
, Deroin became a seamstress. In 1831, she joined the followers of utopian socialist Henri de Saint-Simon. For her required statement of her belief in their principles, she wrote a forty-four page essay, in part inspired by Olympe de Gouges
' Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen
, in which Deroin argued against the idea that women were inferior to men, and likened marriage
to slavery
. Despite this, in 1832, she married Antoine Ulysse Desroches, a fellow Saint-Simonite, but refused to take his surname and insisted on taking a vow of equality in a civil ceremony
.
Later in 1832, Deroin was part of a group of working women who, in protest at the Saint-Simonites hierarchical and religious nature left the group, and became supporters of the socialist Charles Fourier
. They began publishing La Femme Libre, the first newspaper for women in France, for which she wrote under the pseudonym Jeanne Victoire.
During this period, Deroin qualified as a schoolteacher. From 1834, she focussed on this work, and on bringing up her children and those of Flora Tristan
.
Deroin was a prominent figure during the Revolutions of 1848, campaigning on the rights of women and against the exploitation of children and harsh treatment of convicts. With other Fourierist women such as Pauline Roland
, Eugenie Niboyet
and Desirée Gay
, she launched a socialist feminist newspaper and club, the Voix des Femmes
. She personally led calls for women's suffrage
. The group was soon forced to close, but Deroin worked with Gay to found the Association Mutuelle des Femmes and Politique des Femmes newspaper. The organisation gave free courses to working women. Politique des Femmes soon found itself unable to raise a 5,000 franc security bond required by the government. Deroin replaced it with Opinion des Femmes, but this lasted only one issue.
In January 1849, Deroin relaunched Opinion des Femmes. She continued her campaigns, and in particular argued against the anarchist philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
. Deroin stood in the Department of the Seine at the French legislative election, 1849
, becoming the first woman in France to stand in a national election. She stood for the Comité Démocrate Sociale, but received only fifteen votes, in part because she would not have been permitted to take a seat. She then became the Deputy President of the Société Populaire pour le Progression et la Réalisation de la Science Sociale, which campaigned for a peaceful social revolution
.
In Opinion des Femmess last issue, of August 1849, Deroin called for the formation of the Association Fraternelle et Solidaire de Toutes les Associations, seeing it as a chance to transform the loose co-operative movement into a revolutionary general union
which could organise work through its affiliated associations, eliminate wage
s and control the economy.
The National Assembly gave her and Gay 12,000 francs to form an association of women seamstresses making ladies' underwear, and a fraternal association along a watered-down version of her proposal was initially able to link together more than one hundred existing organisations. Deroin was elected to its Central Committee, alongside Roland. However, the Association was gradually repressed by the Government, and in May 1850, its offices were raided, forty-six members being arrested.
Deroin was imprisoned until June 1851, using this time to campaign further on women's rights. She wrote to groups including the National Women's Rights Convention
in Massachusetts and the Sheffield Female Political Association
, giving advice on tactics. On her release, she returned to teaching, but in 1852, fearing re-arrest, she travelled to London
with her two youngest children. She lived in Shepherd's Bush
, where she worked teaching and embroidering. She also published three women's almanac
s and remained active in supporting workers' co-operatives.
In 1862, Deroin founded a boarding school
for children of French exile
s, aiming to admit even the poorest children, but the project did not prove financially viable. In 1871, she was granted a small pension
by the new Government of France. Although she remained in London, she kept up a correspondence with socialist feminists and women's suffrage campaigners in France, such as Léon Richer, Madame Arnaud and Hubertine Auclert
.
In the 1880s, Deroin joined the Socialist League
, and its founder William Morris
delivered the oration at her funeral.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
socialist feminist.
Born in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Deroin became a seamstress. In 1831, she joined the followers of utopian socialist Henri de Saint-Simon. For her required statement of her belief in their principles, she wrote a forty-four page essay, in part inspired by Olympe de Gouges
Olympe de Gouges
Olympe de Gouges , born Marie Gouze, was a French playwright and political activist whose feminist and abolitionist writings reached a large audience....
' Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen
Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen
The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen , also known as the Declaration of the Rights of Woman, was written in 1791 by French activist and playwright Olympe de Gouges...
, in which Deroin argued against the idea that women were inferior to men, and likened marriage
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
to slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
. Despite this, in 1832, she married Antoine Ulysse Desroches, a fellow Saint-Simonite, but refused to take his surname and insisted on taking a vow of equality in a civil ceremony
Civil ceremony
A civil registrar ceremony is a non-religious legal marriage ceremony performed by a government official or functionary. In the UK, this person is normally called a registrar...
.
Later in 1832, Deroin was part of a group of working women who, in protest at the Saint-Simonites hierarchical and religious nature left the group, and became supporters of the socialist Charles Fourier
Charles Fourier
François Marie Charles Fourier was a French philosopher. An influential thinker, some of Fourier's social and moral views, held to be radical in his lifetime, have become main currents in modern society...
. They began publishing La Femme Libre, the first newspaper for women in France, for which she wrote under the pseudonym Jeanne Victoire.
During this period, Deroin qualified as a schoolteacher. From 1834, she focussed on this work, and on bringing up her children and those of Flora Tristan
Flora Tristan
Flora Tristan was a socialist writer and activist. She was also one of the founders of modern feminism...
.
Deroin was a prominent figure during the Revolutions of 1848, campaigning on the rights of women and against the exploitation of children and harsh treatment of convicts. With other Fourierist women such as Pauline Roland
Pauline Roland
Pauline Roland was a French feminist and socialist.Upon her mother's insistence, Roland received a good education and was introduced to the ideas of Claude Henri de Rouvroy, Comte de Saint-Simon, the founder of French socialism, by one of her teachers. She became an enthusiastic supporter of his...
, Eugenie Niboyet
Eugénie Niboyet
Eugénie Mouchon-Niboyet was a French author and early feminist. She is best known for founding La Voix des Femmes , the first feminist daily newspaper in France.- Youth and Family Background :...
and Desirée Gay
Desirée Gay
Jeanne Desirée Véret Gay was a French socialist feminist.Born in Paris, as Desirée Véret, she worked as a seamstress before in 1831 joining the followers of utopian socialist Henri de Saint-Simon...
, she launched a socialist feminist newspaper and club, the Voix des Femmes
Voix des Femmes
La Voix des Femmes was a Parisian feminist newspaper, and later an organization dedicated to education and the advancement of women's rights. The newspaper was published daily beginning in 1848 with the fall of Louis Philippe and the emergence of the much more lenient French Second Republic...
. She personally led calls for women's suffrage
Women's suffrage
Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
. The group was soon forced to close, but Deroin worked with Gay to found the Association Mutuelle des Femmes and Politique des Femmes newspaper. The organisation gave free courses to working women. Politique des Femmes soon found itself unable to raise a 5,000 franc security bond required by the government. Deroin replaced it with Opinion des Femmes, but this lasted only one issue.
In January 1849, Deroin relaunched Opinion des Femmes. She continued her campaigns, and in particular argued against the anarchist philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was a French politician, mutualist philosopher and socialist. He was a member of the French Parliament, and he was the first person to call himself an "anarchist". He is considered among the most influential theorists and organisers of anarchism...
. Deroin stood in the Department of the Seine at the French legislative election, 1849
French legislative election, 1849
French legislative elections were held on 13 May 1849. Voters elected the first National Assembly of the Second Republic.The conservative Parti de l'Ordre won an overall majority of 450 seats.The Parti de l'Ordre was a bourgeois, traditionalist, and conservative party opposed to the Presidency of...
, becoming the first woman in France to stand in a national election. She stood for the Comité Démocrate Sociale, but received only fifteen votes, in part because she would not have been permitted to take a seat. She then became the Deputy President of the Société Populaire pour le Progression et la Réalisation de la Science Sociale, which campaigned for a peaceful social revolution
Social revolution
The term social revolution may have different connotations depending on the speaker.In the Trotskyist movement, the term "social revolution" refers to an upheaval in which existing property relations are smashed...
.
In Opinion des Femmess last issue, of August 1849, Deroin called for the formation of the Association Fraternelle et Solidaire de Toutes les Associations, seeing it as a chance to transform the loose co-operative movement into a revolutionary general union
General union
A General Union is a trade union which represents workers from all industries and companies, rather than just one organization or a particular sector, as in a craft union or industrial union...
which could organise work through its affiliated associations, eliminate wage
Wage
A wage is a compensation, usually financial, received by workers in exchange for their labor.Compensation in terms of wages is given to workers and compensation in terms of salary is given to employees...
s and control the economy.
The National Assembly gave her and Gay 12,000 francs to form an association of women seamstresses making ladies' underwear, and a fraternal association along a watered-down version of her proposal was initially able to link together more than one hundred existing organisations. Deroin was elected to its Central Committee, alongside Roland. However, the Association was gradually repressed by the Government, and in May 1850, its offices were raided, forty-six members being arrested.
Deroin was imprisoned until June 1851, using this time to campaign further on women's rights. She wrote to groups including the National Women's Rights Convention
National Women's Rights Convention
The National Women's Rights Convention was an annual series of meetings that increased the visibility of the early women's rights movement in the United States. First held in 1850 in Worcester, Massachusetts, the National Women's Rights Convention combined both male and female leadership, and...
in Massachusetts and the Sheffield Female Political Association
Sheffield Female Political Association
The Sheffield Female Political Association was the first women's suffrage organisation in the United Kingdom.The group was founded in February 1851 by several Sheffield women who were also active in the Chartist movement, led by Anne Kent and Anne Knight...
, giving advice on tactics. On her release, she returned to teaching, but in 1852, fearing re-arrest, she travelled to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
with her two youngest children. She lived in Shepherd's Bush
Shepherd's Bush
-Commerce:Commercial activity in Shepherd's Bush is now focused on the Westfield shopping centre next to Shepherd's Bush Central line station and on the many small shops which run along the northern side of the Green....
, where she worked teaching and embroidering. She also published three women's almanac
Almanac
An almanac is an annual publication that includes information such as weather forecasts, farmers' planting dates, and tide tables, containing tabular information in a particular field or fields often arranged according to the calendar etc...
s and remained active in supporting workers' co-operatives.
In 1862, Deroin founded a boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
for children of French exile
Exile
Exile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return...
s, aiming to admit even the poorest children, but the project did not prove financially viable. In 1871, she was granted a small pension
Pension
In general, a pension is an arrangement to provide people with an income when they are no longer earning a regular income from employment. Pensions should not be confused with severance pay; the former is paid in regular installments, while the latter is paid in one lump sum.The terms retirement...
by the new Government of France. Although she remained in London, she kept up a correspondence with socialist feminists and women's suffrage campaigners in France, such as Léon Richer, Madame Arnaud and Hubertine Auclert
Hubertine Auclert
Hubertine Auclert was a leading French feminist and a campaigner for women's suffrage.Born in the Allier département in the Auvergne area of France into a middle-class family, Hubertine Auclert's father died when she was thirteen years old and her mother sent her to live and study in a Roman...
.
In the 1880s, Deroin joined the Socialist League
Socialist League (UK, 1885)
The Socialist League was an early revolutionary socialist organisation in the United Kingdom. The organisation began as a dissident offshoot of the Social Democratic Federation of Henry Hyndman at the end of 1884. Never an ideologically harmonious group, by the 1890s the group had turned from...
, and its founder William Morris
William Morris
William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
delivered the oration at her funeral.