Caroline de Barrau (1828–88) was a wealthy French educationalist, feminist, author and philanthropist.
She became interested in the education of girls, created a school in Paris where her daughter was taught, and encouraged her daughter and other young women to successfully apply for admission to the
University of Paris
, image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Coat of Arms
, latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis
, motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin)
, mottoeng = Here and a ...
, previously a male-only institution. She belonged to international feminist associations, investigated the conditions of working women in Paris, was a leader in the campaign to eliminate state-regulated prostitution, helped prostitutes reenter society after being released from prison and provided aid to abandoned infants. She was the author of several books on women's issues.
Life
Caroline-Françoise Coulomb was born in Paris in 1828.
Her family was of wealthy Protestant landowners.
She was well-educated in the Greek and Latin classics, modern languages and music.
In 1848 she married M. de Barrau de Muratel, an embassy attaché, and during her marriage lived in the Montagnet chateau at Montagne-Noire du Tarn, above
Sorèze
Sorèze (; oc, Sorese ca, Sorese) is a commune in the Tarn department in southern France.
See also
* Communes of the Tarn department
The following is a list of the 314 communes of the Tarn department of France.
The communes cooperate i ...
.
Caroline de Barrau was simultaneously pro-republican and elitist.
Although both cosmopolitan and an early feminist, she was a patriot during the
Franco-Prussian War (1870–71).
She converted her Montagnet chateau into a hospital, where she brought forty wounded from the battlefield of the Loire.
They were infected by smallpox, but thirty-nine survived.
She took an interest in psychic phenomena. Dr.
Charles Richet
Charles Robert Richet (25 August 1850 – 4 December 1935) was a French physiologist at the Collège de France known for his pioneering work in immunology. In 1913, he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "in recognition of his work on ...
said he met
Madame Blavatsky through her, and she also belonged to the circle of Dr.
Paul Gibier.
Educationalist
Caroline de Barrau became interested in educational issues, and won the respect of
Élisa Lemonnier, founder of schools for professional training of women, while raising her own children.
She gathered children of both sexes around her daughter and two sons, and chose teachers to work under her direction.
The improvised school was very successful.
Caroline de Barrau moved to Paris when needed for the education of her children and other pupils, and opened her home to young medical students, mostly foreign.
She gave some of them financial support.
Caroline de Barrau thought that women were prohibited from attending public universities in France more by custom than for legal reasons. The solution was to prepare women adequately for university study, and then enroll them. Her daughter Emilie, with other young women "intellectually prepared for work of university grade, appeared at the proper time and place for enrollment." They were admitted to study medicine at the
University of Paris
, image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Coat of Arms
, latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis
, motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin)
, mottoeng = Here and a ...
.
The Berry family, headed by a civil servant named Gabriel Berry, lived with the Barrau family in their spacious villa in Paris and shared their commitment to giving their children an advanced education. Madame Berry managed domestic arrangements while Madame de Barrau formulated the educational theories and plans.
The Berrys were the in-laws of
Theodore Stanton.
His sister
Harriot Stanton Blatch
Harriot Eaton Blatch ( Stanton; January 20, 1856–November 20, 1940) was an American writer and suffragist. She was the daughter of pioneering women's rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Biography
Harriot Eaton Stanton was born, the sixt ...
visited them in Paris in 1881, and described Caroline de Barrau as "an exceptional daughter of France of the aristocratic, protestant element."
Harriot recorded, "It was during this visit in Paris that Madame de Barrau broached the idea that ... I should return for the winter to study economics at the famous School of Political Economy" in Paris.
In 1883 Caroline de Barrau escorted
Susan B. Anthony
Susan B. Anthony (born Susan Anthony; February 15, 1820 – March 13, 1906) was an American social reformer and women's rights activist who played a pivotal role in the women's suffrage movement. Born into a Quaker family committed to s ...
around Paris. Anthony was grateful for the fact that she spoke English.
In 1884 the French Chamber's budget commission considered eliminating all inspectresses general of nursery schools.
The women's teachers' journal ''L'Ami de l'enfance'', co-edited by
Pauline Kergomard
Pauline Kergomard (24 April 1838 – 13 February 1925) was a French educator. She is known as the founder of the nursery school in France.
Early years
Pauline Reclus was born in Bordeaux in 1838. Her father was Jean Reclus, inspector of schools ...
and
Charles Defodon, raised the alarm.
Defodon praised the inspectorate as a French tradition that made use of women's distinctive maternal talents.
Caroline de Barrau noted that nursery schools had been founded as an initiative of women which the state then chose to support.
She disparaged the regime by comparison to its predecessors, who had introduced inspectresses general. The unsatisfactory compromise was to dismiss or retire four of the inspectresses and retain the other four.
In 1886–87 she and her friend Pauline Kergomard founded the ''Union française pour le sauvetage de l'Enfance'' (French union for rescuing children).
This society gave aid to children who had been abandoned.
Feminist
In 1866 a feminist group called the ''Société pour la Revendication du Droit des Femmes'' began to meet at the house of
André Léo. Members included
Paule Minck
Paule Mink (born Adèle Paulina Mekarska; 1839–1901) was a French feminist and socialist revolutionary of Polish descent. She participated in the Paris Commune and in the First International. Her pseudonym is also sometimes spelled Minck.
Early ...
,
Louise Michel
Louise Michel (; 29 May 1830 – 9 January 1905) was a teacher and important figure in the Paris Commune. Following her penal transportation to New Caledonia she embraced anarchism. When returning to France she emerged as an important French a ...
,
Eliska Vincent,
Élie Reclus
Élie Reclus (; 1827–1904) was a French ethnographer and anarchist.
Élie Reclus was the oldest of five brothers, born to a Protestant minister and his wife. His middle three brothers, including the well known anarchist Élisée Reclus, all b ...
and his wife Noémie, Mme
Jules Simon
Jules François Simon (; 31 December 1814 – 8 June 1896) was a French statesman and philosopher, and one of the leaders of the Moderate Republicans in the Third French Republic.
Biography
Simon was born at Lorient. His father was a linen-dra ...
and Caroline de Barrau.
Maria Deraismes
Maria Deraismes (17 August 1828 – 6 February 1894) was a French author, Freemason, and major pioneering force for women's rights.
Biography
Born in Paris, Maria Deraismes grew up in Pontoise in the city's northwest outskirts. From a p ...
also participated. Because of the broad range of opinions, the group decided to focus on the subject of improving girls' education.
Caroline de Barrau was a member of the ''
Association internationale des femmes
The Association internationale des femmes (AIF; International Association of Women) was a short-lived feminist and pacifist organization based in Geneva that was active between 1868 and 1872. It demanded full equality between men and women. This wa ...
'' (AIF) formed in 1868. By 1872 the AIF was viewed with suspicion, since the word "International" was associated with the
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune (french: Commune de Paris, ) was a revolutionary government that seized power in Paris, the capital of France, from 18 March to 28 May 1871.
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defended ...
, and was divided over the leadership of
Marie Goegg.
In June 1872 Caroline de Barrau was one of the signatories of a communiqué calling for a meeting at the home of
Julie von May von Rued in Bern to organize a new association called ''Solidarité: Association pour la défense des droits de la femme'' (Solidarity: Association for the Defense of Women's Rights). Other signatories included
Josephine Butler
Josephine Elizabeth Butler (' Grey; 13 April 1828 – 30 December 1906) was an English feminist and social reformer in the Victorian era. She campaigned for women's suffrage, the right of women to better education, the end of coverture ...
, Christine Lazzati, Rosalie Schönwasser,
Marianne Menzzer
Marianne Menzzer (25 November 1814 – 5 June 1895) was a German feminist who used statistics to demonstrate discrimination against women in the workplace.
Life
Marianne Menzzer was born on 25 November 1814.
As was the case with many activist fe ...
and Julie Kühne.
At the 1877 congress in Geneva of the
International Federation for the Abolition of Regulated Prostitution Caroline de Barrau reported that women workers in Paris, mostly employed seasonally, earned about two francs per day on average. This was a starvation wage.
In an ordinance of 16 June 1879 the police authorized establishment of a French section of the Federation for the Abolition of Prostitution, called the ''Association pour l'abolition de la prostitution réglementée'', with
Victor Schœlcher
Victor Schœlcher (; 22 July 1804 – 25 December 1893) was a French abolitionist, writer, politician and journalist, best known for his leading role in the abolition of slavery in France in 1848, during the Second Republic.
Early life
Schœlche ...
(1804–1893) as president. The association included feminists, radicals and abolitionists.
The most active organizers of the French Association for the Abolition of Official Prostitution were the feminist leaders
Maria Deraismes
Maria Deraismes (17 August 1828 – 6 February 1894) was a French author, Freemason, and major pioneering force for women's rights.
Biography
Born in Paris, Maria Deraismes grew up in Pontoise in the city's northwest outskirts. From a p ...
,
Emilie de Morsier and Caroline de Barrau.
For some years Caroline de Barrau led the institution of the ''Libérées de Saint-Lazare'', which helped former prisoners of
Saint-Lazare, mostly prostitutes, to return to society.
Caroline de Barrau died in Paris in 1888.
Works
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References
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrau, Caroline de
1828 births
1888 deaths
French feminists
French educational theorists
19th-century French women writers
19th-century women writers
Writers from Paris