Avril de Sainte-Croix

Avril de Sainte-Croix
Avril de Sainte-Croix as President of the National Council of French Women
Born	Adrienne-Pierrette-Eugénie Glaisette 1855 Carouge, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland
Died	21 March 1939 Menton, Alpes-Maritimes, France
Nationality	French
Occupation	Philanthropist and feminist

Ghénia Avril de Sainte-Croix (1855 – 21 March 1939) was a French author, journalist and feminist. For many years she led the French branch of the International Abolitionist Federation, which sought to abolish state regulation of prostitution and fought trafficking in women. She advised the French government and the League of Nations on women's issues. She was vice-president of the International Council of Women from 1920 and President of the National Council of French Women from 1922 to 1932.

Adrienne-Pierrette-Eugénie (Ghénia) Glaisette was born in 1855 in the village of Carouge near Geneva, Switzerland to Marc Glaisette and Marie-Louise Savuiz. She spoke several languages and traveled widely. As a young woman she seems to have spent much time in central Europe. Her portrait by Teodor Axentowicz was exhibited in the Salon in 1893, and published in La jeune Dame. She was mentioned in society newspapers. The Gentlewoman reports her presence at a matinee dance given the Baroness de Montebello, apparently her aunt. In the mid-1890s she published a series of children's stories set in Eastern Europe. She signed the stories and her first newspaper articles "Savioz". The Parisian newspapers reported that she was present at the celebrations of the Cuban War of Independence (1895–98) organized by the Cuban colony of Paris.

Sainte-Croix came from the haute société protestante (Protestant high society) and shared its philanthropic tradition. In the 1890s she began to participate in the Conference of Versailles, an annual meeting of Protestant women's charities. Representatives of social reform groups fighting pornography, alcoholism and prostitution spoke at these conferences. It was through this that she became involved in the abolitionist campaign to end government-regulated prostitution. Starting in the late 1890s she began to publish journalistic investigations into the plight of prostitutes and working women. Sainte-Croix wrote for La Fronde, which was founded late in 1897, as did Marguerite Durand, Séverine, Marie Bonnevial and Clémence Royer. She published a remarkable article in this paper on the conditions in the prison of Saint-Lazare, where prostitutes were held. She spoke on the question of female journalists at the 1899 congress of the International Council of Women (ICW) in London.