Jeanne Deroin (31 December 1805 – 2 April 1894) was a French

socialist feminist Socialist feminism rose in the 1960s and 1970s as an offshoot of the feminist movement and New Left that focuses upon the interconnectivity of the patriarchy and capitalism. However, the ways in which women's private, domestic, and public roles ...

. She spent the latter half of her life in exile in London, where she continued her organising activities.

Early life

Born in Paris, Deroin became a

seamstress A dressmaker, also known as a seamstress, is a person who makes custom clothing for women, such as dresses, blouses, and evening gowns. Dressmakers were historically known as mantua-makers, and are also known as a modiste or fabrician. Not ...

. In 1831, she joined the followers of

utopian socialist Utopian socialism is the term often used to describe the first current of modern socialism and socialist thought as exemplified by the work of Henri de Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier, Étienne Cabet, and Robert Owen. Utopian socialism is often de ...

Henri de Saint-Simon Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon (17 October 1760 – 19 May 1825), often referred to as Henri de Saint-Simon (), was a French political, economic and socialist theorist and businessman whose thought had a substantial influence on p ...

. 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 (; born Marie Gouze; 7 May 17483 November 1793) was a French playwright and political activist whose writings on women's rights and abolitionism reached a large audience in various countries. She began her career as a playwright ...

' 1791

Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen (french: Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne), also known as the Declaration of the Rights of Woman, was written on 14 September 1791 by French activist, femin ...

, 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"Deroin, Jeanne", ''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'' and insisted on taking a vow of equality in a

civil ceremony A civil, or registrar, ceremony is a non-religious legal marriage ceremony performed by a government official or functionary. In the United Kingdom, this person is typically called a registrar. In the United States, civil ceremonies may be performed ...

.Jeanne Deroin
, Encyclopedia of 1848 Revolutions 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 François Marie Charles Fourier (;; 7 April 1772 – 10 October 1837) was a French philosopher, an influential early socialist thinker and one of the founders of utopian socialism. Some of Fourier's social and moral views, held to be radical ...

. They began publishing ''

La Femme Libre LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note * "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figure ...

'', 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.

1848 Revolution

Deroin was a prominent figure during the

Revolutions of 1848 The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime of the Peoples or the Springtime of Nations, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe starting in 1848. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in Europea ...

, 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 (1805, Falaise, Calvados – 15 December 1852) 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, ...

, Eugenie Niboyet and Desirée Gay, she launched a socialist feminist newspaper and club, the '' Voix des Femmes''. She led calls for

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

. 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 (, , ; 15 January 1809, Besançon – 19 January 1865, Paris) was a French socialist,Landauer, Carl; Landauer, Hilde Stein; Valkenier, Elizabeth Kridl (1979) 959 "The Three Anticapitalistic Movements". ''European Socia ...

. Deroin stood in the

Department of the Seine Seine was the former department of France encompassing Paris and its immediate suburbs. It is the only enclaved department of France at that time. Its prefecture was Paris and its INSEE number was 75. The Seine department was disbanded in 1968 ...

at the

1849 French legislative election Parliamentary elections were held in France on 13 and 14 May 1849. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p. 673 Voters elected the first National Assembly of the Second Republic. The conservative Part ...

, 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.Jeanne Deroin
, Sunshine for Women 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 The history of the cooperative movement concerns the origins and history of cooperatives across the world. Although cooperative arrangements, such as mutual insurance, and principles of cooperation existed long before, the cooperative movement bega ...

into a revolutionary

general union A general union is a trade union (called ''labor union'' in American English) which represents workers from all industries and companies, rather than just one organisation or a particular sector, as in a craft union or industrial union. A gene ...

which could organise work through its affiliated associations, eliminate wages 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.

Imprisonment and exile

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 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 ...

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 An almanac (also spelled ''almanack'' and ''almanach'') is an annual publication listing a set of current information about one or multiple subjects. It includes information like weather forecasts, farmers' planting dates, tide tables, and othe ...

s and remained active in supporting

workers' co-operative A worker cooperative is a cooperative owned and self-managed by its workers. This control may mean a firm where every worker-owner participates in decision-making in a democratic fashion, or it may refer to one in which management is elected by ...

s. In 1862, Deroin founded a boarding school for children of French exiles, 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 Hubertine Auclert (; 10 April 1848 – 4 August 1914) was a leading French feminist and a campaigner for women's suffrage. Early life Born in the Allier ''département'' in the Auvergne area of France into a middle-class family, Hubertine Aucl ...

. In the 1880s, Deroin joined the Socialist League, and its founder

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...

delivered the oration at her funeral.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Deroin, Jeanne 1805 births 1894 deaths Politicians from Paris Fourierists French feminists French socialists French suffragists Saint-Simonists French socialist feminists Socialist League (UK, 1885) members French people of the Revolutions of 1848