La Fronde (newspaper)

La Fronde (The Sling) was a French feminist newspaper first published in Paris on 9 December 1897 by activist Marguerite Durand (1864–1936). Durand, a well known actress and journalist, used her high-profile image to attract many notable Parisian women to contribute articles to her daily newspaper, which was the first of its kind in France to be run and written entirely by women. She also had experience on other reputable publications, including La Presse and Le Figaro.

La Fronde was financed by a donation of 7 million francs, from the Jewish banker Gustave de Rothschild. The paper began publication immediately following the Dreyfus affair, and published feuilletons modeled off mass newspapers. It was published weekly initially; from 1897–1903, and then was published monthly from 1903–1905. Circulation for La Fronde briefly reached a peak of 50,000 but in September 1903 and had a massive press run of 200,000. However, financial problems forced the paper to cut back to a monthly publication, and then to close altogether in March 1905.

The provocative title of the publication literally means slingshot and refers to the rebellion against the monarchy in France 1648–1653 Fronde. The frondeur tradition within journalism derives from this rebellion against Mazarin, the past chief minister of France. This allusion in the title was an alignment with the frondeur notion that marginalized groups had the right to engage in dialogues about matters of importance.

The paper gave extensive coverage to a broad range of feminist issues and profiled such things as Jeanne Chauvin's demand that the French government grant her the right to practice law and Madeleine Pelletier's argument for her right to become a psychiatrist. To send a message of equality the paper indicated the current date according to a variety of calendars such as the French Revolutionary calendar, the Jewish calendar, and the Gregorian. It was responsible for engaging women in non-domestic issues of social reform and activism, and eventually its focus shifted to emphasize militarism and republicanism, as well as reform of the civil code. The publication's revival was an attempt to "galvanize" World War I French patriotism. Immediately prior to the closing of the publication, it had changed its focus to suffragism.

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