Caroline de Barrau
| Caroline de Barrau | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Caroline-Françoise Coulomb 1828 Paris, France |
| Died | 1888 Paris, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Occupation | Educationalist, feminist, author and philanthropist |
Caroline de Barrau (1828–88) was a wealthy French educationalist, feminist, author and philanthropist. She became interested in the education of girls, created a school in Paris where her daughter was taught, and encouraged her daughter and other young women to successfully apply for admission to the University of Paris, previously a male-only institution. She belonged to international feminist associations, investigated the conditions of working women in Paris, was a leader in the campaign to eliminate state-regulated prostitution, helped prostitutes reenter society after being released from prison and provided aid to abandoned infants. She was the author of several books on women's issues.
Caroline-Françoise Coulomb was born in Paris in 1828. Her family was of wealthy Protestant landowners. She was well-educated in the Greek and Latin classics, modern languages and music. In 1848 she married M. de Barrau de Muratel, an embassy attaché, and during her marriage lived in the Montagnet chateau at Montagne-Noire du Tarn, above Sorèze. Caroline de Barrau was simultaneously pro-republican and elitist. Although both cosmopolitan and an early feminist, she was a patriot during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71). She converted her Montagnet chateau into a hospital, where she brought forty wounded from the battlefield of the Loire. They were infected by smallpox, but thirty-nine survived. She took an interest in psychic phenomena. Dr. Charles Richet said he met Madame Blavatsky through her, and she also belonged to the circle of Dr. Paul Gibier.
Caroline de Barrau became interested in educational issues, and won the respect of Élisa Lemonnier, founder of schools for professional training of women, while raising her own children. She gathered children of both sexes around her daughter and two sons, and chose teachers to work under her direction. The improvised school was very successful. Caroline de Barrau moved to Paris when needed for the education of her children and other pupils, and opened her home to young medical students, mostly foreign. She gave some of them financial support. Caroline de Barrau thought that women were prohibited from attending public universities in France more by custom than for legal reasons. The solution was to prepare women adequately for university study, and then enroll them. Her daughter Emilie, with other young women "intellectually prepared for work of university grade, appeared at the proper time and place for enrollment." They were admitted to study medicine at the University of Paris.
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