Hubertine Auclert, the activist committed to the right to vote for women

During this electoral period, a short step back on the life of Hubertine Auclert Suffragette and militant for women's rights.

©️Gallica-BnF

Hubertine Auclert, his real name Marie Anne Hubertine, was born on April 10, 1848 in Saint-Priest-en-Murat in Allier. Fifth of a siblings of seven children, she evolves between a republican father opposed to the Second Empire and a mother who devotes herself to mothers. 

From the age of nine, Hubertine was placed in a Montmarault convent. She will follow all her school curriculum among nuns. The story even tells that when he was 13 years old, our protagonist planned to get involved in the girls of the charity of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul. She will not be accepted. Years later, after the death of his parents in 1864 and 1866, his brother placed her in a convent in Montluçon. Convent of which it was again dismissed in 1869. These experiences made Hubertine an asserted anticlerical. 

Credit: Departmental Archives of Allier. Anne Marie Huberine birth certificate Auclaire - April 10, 1848

Hubertine Auclert's feminist fight

Hubertine arrived in Paris in 1873. The advent of the Third Republic explains this new enthusiasm for feminist militancy. These women want to revise the Napoleon code which makes the minor woman for life and submitted to her husband. 

Very quickly our activist joins theAssociation for women's rights. Hubertine works there for a time as a librarian before opposing Léon Richer, founder of the association. It is committed and demands that women can stand in the elections, which could avoid such an uneven civilian regime between men and women. This activism pushes it to write articles in several newspapers and to found the company Women's law in 1876 - which will become The suffrage of women in 1883.

Already in 1877, Hubertine expressed herself directly to women: " Femmes de France, nous aussi nous avons des droits à revendiquer : il est temps de sortir de l'indifférence et de l'inertie pour réclamer contre les préjugés et les lois qui nous humilient. Unissons nos efforts, associons-nous ; l'exemple des prolétaires nous sollicite ; sachons nous émanciper comme eux ! ». In 1880, she presented herself on the electoral lists and began a tax strike. If women are not legally represented, then they are not taxable! A year later, Hubertine launched her newspaper The citizen for the release of women's rights. And from 1884, she proposed the idea of ​​a marriage contract between spouses with separation of property - a first at the time! - and the feminization of the language for several words (witness, lawyer, voter, deputy, etc.). 

Credit - Paris, heritage libraries - Marguerite Durand library

A suffragette engaged between colonialism and strong symbols

Entre 1888 et 1892, Hubertine quitte la France pour l’Algérie avec son futur mari Pierre Antonin Lévrier. Ce nouveau pays aux codes encore bien différents de la France sera un vrai terrain d’observation pour la militante. Ses écrits, qu’elle conserve précieusement, sont d’autant plus importants que très peu de féministes s’étaient intéressées à la colonisation, au racisme et à l’antisémitisme. Hubertine parle de « double patriarcat, français et arabe » et elle estime même que le colonialisme français a aggravé la situation des femmes en Algérie. 

Back in France following the death of her husband, Hubertine will continue to commit to the rights of Arab women. 

Later, other striking facts demonstrate continuous and strong commitment of Hubertine Auclert in the fight for the right to vote for women. First, in 1908, she decided to symbolically break an urn during the municipal elections of Paris. Then, in April 1910, she appeared in the legislative elections alongside Marguerite Durand. Their rejected candidacy, Hubertine calls to boycott the census: " If we don't count, why do we count? ». 

Hubertine Auclert died on April 8, 1914, 30 before the voting law of women was legal in France (1st vote authorized on April 21, 1944). But his efforts were not in vain. Thanks to the actions of Hubertine, the sellers and workers obtained the right to sit in department stores and workshops, women became electricity and then eligible for the industrial tribunal (1907) and married women obtained control of their own wages (1908) ...