Madeleine Sylvain-Bouchereau (July 5, 1905 –1970) was a pioneering

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

an sociologist and educator. In 1934, she was one of the principal founders of the '' Ligue Féminine d'Action Sociale'' (Women's Social Action League), the first feminist organization in Haiti.

Biography

Born on 5 July 1905 in

Port-au-Prince Port-au-Prince ( , ; ht, Pòtoprens ) is the capital and most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 987,311 in 2015 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The metropolitan area is define ...

, she was the daughter of the poet and diplomat

Georges Sylvain Georges Sylvain (1866–1925) was a Haitian poet, lawyer and diplomat. Born in Puerto Plata (city), Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, Sylvain studied in his native city before attending school in Paris and receiving a law degree. After retur ...

and his wife Eugénie Mallebranche. A brilliant student, she was educated in Haiti,

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

and the

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, graduating in law at the

University of Haiti The State University of Haiti (french: Université d'État d'Haïti (UEH)) is one of Haiti's most prestigious institutions of higher education. It is located in Port-au-Prince. Its origins date to the 1820s, when colleges of medicine and law wer ...

in 1933, studying education and sociology at the University of Puerto-Rico (1936–38) and at

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United St ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, where she earned a doctorate in sociology in 1941. Her thesis ''Haïti et ses femmes. Une étude d’évolution culturelle'' (Haiti and its Women. A Study of Cultural Evolution) was published in 1957. Her academic career began in 1941 when she taught at Haiti's Ethnology Institute, continuing in 1945 at the National Agricultural School and at

Fisk University Fisk University is a private historically black liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its campus is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1930, Fisk was the first Africa ...

. She was an Honorary Member of

Delta Sigma Theta Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. () is a historically African American sorority. The organization was founded by college-educated women dedicated to public service with an emphasis on programs that assist the African American community. Delta ...

sorority. She received the Susan B. Anthony prize for her work ''L'Éducation des Femmes en Haïti'' (The Education of Women in Haiti). With a view to improving social and economic conditions for women, together with several other women from the upper and middle classes, she established the ''Ligue Féminine d'Action Sociale'' (

Feminine League for Social Action Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as socially constructed, and there is also some evidence that some behaviors considered fe ...

). Sylvain-Bouchereau played an important part in contributing to ''La Voix des Femmes'', the organization's journal.

International participation

Sylvain-Bouchereau's international career began in 1937 when she was the Haitian delegate at the Third Inter-American Conference on Education. She was an early participant in the work of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

, arranging social services for Polish political prisoners in 1944. She sat on the first committee for women's rights and, from 1952 to 1956, assisted the

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is a non-profit non-governmental organization working "to bring together women of different political views and philosophical and religious backgrounds determined to study and make kno ...

in giving educational courses in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

and

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. From 1966 to 1968, Sylvain-Bouchereau was an advisor to the

Government of Togo A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

on community development. Sylvain-Bouchereau was one of seven notable brothers and sisters. Her elder sister,

Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain (6 November 1898 – 20 June 1975) was the first woman Haitian anthropologist. Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain was a student of Bronislaw Malinowski who worked in 1949 with Alfred Métraux, and participated in a UNESCO project ...

(1898-1975), was Haiti's first female anthropologist, while her younger sister,

Yvonne Sylvain Yvonne Sylvain (June 28, 1907 – October 3, 1989) was a Haitian physician who was the first female medical doctor from the country. She was also the first woman accepted into the University of Haiti Medical School, and earned her medical degree ...

(1907-1989), was the country's first female doctor. Her brother, Normil Sylvain (1900-1929), founded ''La Revue indigène'' which published native Haitian poetry and

Haitian literature Haitian literature has been closely intertwined with the political life of Haiti. Haitian intellectuals turned successively or simultaneously to African traditions, France, Latin America, the UK, and the United States. At the same time, Haitian h ...

. Her youngest brother, Pierre Sylvain (1910–1991), a botanist, reported on coffee production in Ethiopia. Madeleine Sylvain-Bouchereau died in 1970 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Selected works

*Sylvain-Bouchereau, Madeleine (1944), Education des femmes en Haïti, Port-au-Prince, Imp. de l’Etat. *Sylvain-Bouchereau, Madeleine (1944), Lecture Haïtienne : La Famille Renaud, Port-au-Prince, Editions Henri Deschamps. *Sylvain-Bouchereau, Madeleine (1946), "Les Droits des femmes et la nouvelle Constitution", in La Femme haïtienne répond aux attaques formulées contre elle à l’Assemblée constituante, Port-au-Prince, Société d’Editions et de Librairie. *Sylvain-Bouchereau, Madeleine (1950), "La Classe moyenne en Haïti", in Matériaux pour l’étude de la classe moyenne en Amérique Latine, Washington, Département des Sciences sociales de l’union panaméricaine. *Sylvain-Bouchereau, Madeleine (1957), Haïti et ses femmes. Une étude d’évolution culturelle, Port-au-Prince, Les Presses Libres.

Biography

International participation

Selected works

References

Further reading