Hubertine Auclert(1848 — 1914)
Hubertine Auclert
8 min read
French feminist activist (1848–1914), she was one of the first to demand women's right to vote in France. Founder of the society “Le Suffrage des femmes,” she led militant actions such as refusing to pay her taxes and smashing a ballot box.
Frequently asked questions
Famous Quotes
« Women pay taxes, therefore they must have the right to vote. »
« Universal suffrage is not universal as long as it excludes half of humanity. »
Key Facts
- 1848: born in Tilly (Allier)
- 1876: founded the society “Le Droit des femmes,” later renamed “Le Suffrage des femmes”
- 1880: refused to pay her taxes, denouncing the fiscal injustice against women deprived of the right to vote
- 1908: smashed a ballot box during the municipal elections in Paris to protest the exclusion of women from the vote
- 1914: died in Paris, six years before the world congress that would revive the cause of women's suffrage in France
Works & Achievements
A feminist weekly founded and edited by Auclert for ten years, the leading press organ of the French suffragist movement and an essential platform for republican feminism.
A pioneering work denouncing the double discrimination suffered by Algerian women — as women and as colonized subjects — the fruit of her four years spent in Algiers between 1888 and 1892.
A major political essay in which Auclert systematically sets out all the arguments in favor of women's suffrage and refutes her opponents' objections one by one.
A collection of her articles and political writings published after her death, gathering the essence of her feminist thought and standing as the intellectual testament of a lifetime of struggle.
A series of formal petitions addressed to the French Parliament, making Auclert the first activist to officially bring the demand for women's voting rights before the institutions of the Republic.
Anecdotes
On May 3, 1908, during the municipal elections in Paris, Hubertine Auclert entered a polling station with several activists and overturned the ballot box, crying “Down with the law of men!” This spectacular act led to her arrest, but drew the attention of the entire national press to the cause of women’s suffrage.
To protest her exclusion from the right to vote, Hubertine Auclert refused to pay her taxes for several years. She argued that, not being a full citizen, she should not contribute to the finances of a State that excluded her — it was the principle of “no representation, no taxation,” turned back against the authorities.
In 1881, Hubertine Auclert founded her own newspaper, *La Citoyenne*, which she ran for ten years. Each week she published articles demanding women’s right to vote, responded to her critics, and reported on feminist advances abroad, making the paper both an educational and activist tool.
Having traveled to Algeria from 1888 to 1892 to join her partner Antonin Lévrier, Hubertine Auclert closely observed the condition of colonized Arab women. Upon her return, she published *Les femmes arabes en Algérie* (1900), a pioneering work that denounced the double discrimination suffered by these women, victims of both patriarchy and colonization.
During the 1880 census, Hubertine Auclert refused to fill out her census form correctly, arguing that if women did not exist politically, the State had no need to count them. This symbolic act of civil disobedience illustrated her strategy: making visible the absurdity of a Republic that excluded half of its inhabitants.
Primary Sources
We want to vote, because to vote is to exist politically; because without the right to vote, women can have no influence over the laws that govern them nor over the taxes they pay.
Women pay taxes, and therefore must have the right to oversee how their money is spent; they obey the laws, and therefore must take part in shaping them. Any other principle is a contradiction of democracy.
The Arabs have reduced their women to a condition so wretched that they can only be compared to the slaves of antiquity. France, which calls itself a civilizing power, cannot remain indifferent to this state of affairs.
The undersigned, French citizens, demand the application to their sex of the principle enshrined in the republican Constitution: the government of France is democratic, and democracy cannot exclude half the nation.
Key Places
Birthplace of Hubertine Auclert, born on April 10, 1848 in this rural commune in central France, into a family of landed bourgeoisie.
It was in Paris that Hubertine Auclert carried out the bulk of her activism: editing the newspaper, organizing public meetings, submitting petitions to the Chamber of Deputies, and staging high-profile militant actions.
Hubertine Auclert lived in Algiers from 1888 to 1892 with her partner Antonin Lévrier. There she observed the condition of colonized Arab women, an experience that shaped her book *Les femmes arabes en Algérie* (1900).
Home of the Chamber of Deputies, outside which Hubertine Auclert repeatedly submitted official petitions demanding women's right to vote, directly challenging the elected representatives inside.
It was at a Parisian polling station that Hubertine Auclert overturned a ballot box on May 3, 1908, during the municipal elections — one of the most striking militant acts of her life.