Julie Siegfried (born Julie Puaux: 13 February 1848 – 28 May 1922) was a French feminist. She served as president of the
Conseil National des femmes françaises (CNFF/ ''literally, "National Council of French Women"'') between 1913 and 1922.
Early life and family
Julie Puaux was born on 13 February 13, 1848 in
Luneray
Luneray () is a Communes of France, commune in the Seine-Maritime Departments of France, department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy region in northern France.
Geography
A small town of farming and light industry situated in the ...
, a small town couple of miles inland from
Dieppe
Dieppe (; Norman: ''Dgieppe'') is a coastal commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France.
Dieppe is a seaport on the English Channel at the mouth of the river Arques. A regular ferry service runs to Newha ...
in
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
, France. Luneray is one of the few places in this part of France to have a significant Protestant population. The Puaux family was Protestant, moderately prosperous and, at a time when the political and social reverberations of the
revolution
In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
were still very much alive,
anti-monarchist and passionately anti-catholic. François Puaux (1806-1895), Julie's father, was the minister at the
(Protestant) Reformed Church in the town
Julie's siblings included
Frank Puaux (1844-1922), himself a Protestant minister-theologian and a noted historian of Protestantism in France.
On 2 February 1869 Julie Puaux married
Jules Siegfried (1837-1922) at
Alès
Alès (; oc, Alès) is a Communes of France, commune in the Gard Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie regions of France, region in southern France. It is one of the Subprefectures in France, su ...
(
Gard
Gard () is a department in Southern France, located in the region of Occitanie. It had a population of 748,437 as of 2019;[Alsace
Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...]
. The couple's son,
André Siegfried (1875-1959), would later become known to English speakers for his commentaries on American, Canadian, and British politics.
Career
Siegfried was a feminist. Initially the focus of her energies was on education provision for girls in
Le Havre
Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very cl ...
, the major port city of which her husband served as the mayor (1870-1873 and 1878-1886). There was an apprenticeship college and, in 1880, a primary school. Then, in 1885, she was involved in setting up one of the first girls' secondary schools (''lycées de fille'').
Soon after her husband was elected to
the Chambre des députés (''parliament'') in
1885
Events
January–March
* January 3– 4 – Sino-French War – Battle of Núi Bop: French troops under General Oscar de Négrier defeat a numerically superior Qing Chinese force, in northern Vietnam.
* January 4 – ...
the couple moved to
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, setting up home initially in a centrally positioned apartment at
6 rond-point des Champs-Elyses and moving after ten years, to what became the family home at
226 boulevard Saint-Germain in the city's fashionable
Left Bank
In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography, as follows.
In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrai ...
district.
Julie Siegfried now engaged actively in various feminist organisations and actions. She took part in the conferences at
Versailles
The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...
that were arranged by
Sarah Monod
Sarah Monod (24 June 1836 – 13 December 1912) was a French Protestant philanthropist and feminist.
Early years
Alexandrine Elisabeth Sarah Monod was born on 24 June 1836 in Lyon.
She was the fourth of seven children of the evangelical church ...
and was involved with the journal, "La Femme".
She worked with the
Union française pour le suffrage des femmes(UFSF / ''"French Union for Women's Suffrage"'') and, most prominently, with the
Conseil National des femmes françaises (CNFF/ ''literally, "National Council of French Women"'') of which she served as president between January 1913
and her death in 1922, in succession to
Sarah Monod
Sarah Monod (24 June 1836 – 13 December 1912) was a French Protestant philanthropist and feminist.
Early years
Alexandrine Elisabeth Sarah Monod was born on 24 June 1836 in Lyon.
She was the fourth of seven children of the evangelical church ...
, the CNFF's first president.
She became vice-president of the
International Council of Women
The International Council of Women (ICW) is a women's rights organization working across national boundaries for the common cause of advocating human rights for women. In March and April 1888, women leaders came together in Washington, D.C., with ...
, of which the CNFF is the
French branch. She also presided over the "League for Moral Education".
But her most important role involved her CNFF work. The CNFF was the largest feminist organisation in France, with 21,000 members in 1900 and almost 100,000 in 1914. Its objectives included the provision of support, hygiene improvements, women's education and work for women. But its strongest advocacy concerned votes for women. In this campaign Julie Siegfried was strongly backed by her husband. Jules Siegfried and his parliamentary colleagues managed to have the necessary motion tabled and positively received in the
National Assembly (lower house of parliament) in 1909, but there was no vote: at this stage, and for many more years even after the necessary legislation had been passed by the lower house in 1919, women's suffrage was blocked by the
Senate (upper house).
[Anne-Sarah Bouglé-Moalic, Le vote des Françaises : Cent ans de débats 1848-1944, Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2012 ]
Celebration
In 1919 Julie Siegried was made a
knight of the legion of honour
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, ...
in recognition, formally, of her work as president or founder of welfare support organisations and for war
elfarework (''"présidente ou fondatrice d’œuvres d'assistance ou d’œuvres de guerre"'').
Death
Julie Siegfried died on May 28, 1922, predeceasing her husband by less than four months.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Siegfried, Julie
1848 births
1922 deaths
People from Seine-Maritime
French Protestants
French feminists