Auclert, Hubertine

(1848-1914)

   feminist

   Born in Allier, Auvergne, to a wealthy provincial family, Hubertine Auclert was the leading figure in the struggle for women's suffrage in France. Educated in a convent, she became a republican and in 1876 founded a feminist group, Le Droit des femmes (later, 1883, Le Suffrage des femmes). In 1880 she tried to register as a voter and, in 1881, led a women's tax strike, arguing that taxation without representation was unfair. in 1878 Huber-tine Auclert attended the international women's Conference in Liverpool, England, and met with many leading suffragists. She admired the methods of the British women's suffrage movement and, in 1908, smashed a ballot box in emulation of British feminist tactics, but the action did not cause the expected scandal, and so only a fine was imposed on her. Inspired by marie deraismes and léon richer, she joined them in paris, where she fought not only for women's right to vote, but also for equal access to professions, equal pay, civil rights, and divorce reform. From 1888 to 1892, she lived in Algeria, where she concerned herself also with women's rights issues. Her writings include Les Femmes arabes en Algérie (1900), La Vote des femmes (1908), and Les Femmes au gouvernail (1921). Hubertine Auclert was the first to use and popularized the terms "feminism" and "feminist."