Anna Féresse-Deraismes (1 October 1821 – 19 January 1910) was a French feminist activist for women's rights and a Freemason. She was appointed honorary president of the

International Congress of Women The International Congress of Women was created so that groups of existing women's suffrage movements could come together with other women's groups around the world. It served as a way for women organizations across the nation to establish formal ...

in 1896 and 1900, and was a founding member of the first mixed-gender Masonic Order,

Le Droit Humain The International Order of Freemasonry ''Le Droit Humain'' is a global Masonic order, membership of which is available to men and women on equal terms, regardless of nationality, religion or ethnicity. This practice is known as Co-Freemasonry ...

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 pr ...

was her sister.

Biography

Anna Féresse-Deraismes was born in Paris, October 1, 1821. She came from a liberal bourgeois family. Her father was an anticlerical

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778), known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' Voltaire (, ; ), was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, philosopher (''philosophe''), satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit ...

an. Isabelle Bogelot, then an orphan, was taken in by the Deraismes family in 1842. Féresse-Deraismes took charge of the education of her younger sister, Maria, when their father died in 1852. Féresse-Deraismes played a discreet role in the wake of her younger sister as she became better recognized. Both sisters inherited the fortune of their parents, and Anna Féresse went to live with her sister, who never married, when she became a widow. They both shared the same ideas and had the same access to education in their younger years. Following Maria's death in 1894, Féresse-Deraismes gathered her sister's work in ''Oeuvres complètes de Maria Deraismes'' which appeared in 1895 and 1896. At the

, Paris, 9 April 1896, Féresse-Deraismes was appointed honorary president and thus came into contact with Maria Pognon, Marie Martin, Marie Popelin,

Marya Chéliga-Loevy Marya Chéliga-Loevy (or Maria Szeliga, 1854 – 2 January 1927) was a Polish writer, playwright, feminist and pacifist. She was born in Poland but spent much of her life in France. Early years Mirecka Szeliga was born into a prosperous family o ...

, Louise Koppe, and

Eugénie Potonié-Pierre Eugénie Potonié-Pierre (5 November 1844 – 12 June 1898 Paris) was a French feminist who founded the Federation of French Feminist Societies in 1892. She joined the Society for the Amelioration of Women's Condition with Léon Richer and Ma ...

. Féresse-Deraismes continued her sister's feminist struggle as a member of the "Société pour l'amélioration du sort de la femme et la revendication de ses droits" (Society for the Improvement of Conditions for Women and the Vindication of Their Rights) and served as Honorary President of the International Congress of Women in 1900. Féresse-Deraismes was a founding member of the first mixed-gender

Masonic Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

Order,

. In 1904, she became a member of the "Association Nationale des Libres Penseurs de France" (National Association of Free Thinkers of France). In December 1898, Féresse-Deraismes gave a funeral oration for Virginie Griess-Traut, whom she knew well. Féresse-Deraismes was invited to various other gatherings, including that for the new statue of

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 his views, held to be radical in his lifetime, have be ...

Boulevard de Clichy The Boulevard de Clichy () is a famous street of Paris, which lends its name to the Place de Clichy, resulted from the fusion, in 1864, of the roads that paralleled the Wall of the Farmers-General, both inside and out. It extends from the Place ...

in June 1899 or for the publication of

Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, ; ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of Naturalism (literature), naturalism, and an important contributor to ...

's novel ''Travail'' (''Labor''). She died 19 January 1910, in the

17th arrondissement of Paris The 17th arrondissement of Paris (''XVIIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, it is referred to as ''le dix-septième'' (; "the seventeenth"). The arrondissement, known as Batignol ...

Selected works

* ''Oeuvres complètes de Maria Deraismes'' (compiled) * ''Allocution de Mme Féresse-Deraismes, Présidente d'honneur du Congrès, Présidente de la Sociéte pour l'amélioration du sort de la femme et la revendication de ses droits.'', 1900

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Feresse-Deraismes, Anna 1821 births 1910 deaths People from Paris French feminists French book editors French women editors French Freemasons French women's rights activists 19th-century French women Deraismes family