Marie Bonnevial
| Marie Bonnevial | |
|---|---|
Marie Bonnevial as Grand Mistress of the Supreme Council of Le Droit Humain
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| Born |
28 June 1841 Rive-de-Gier |
| Died | 4 December 1918 (aged 77) |
| Nationality | French |
| Occupation | Teacher |
Marie Bonnevial (28 June 1841 - 4 December 1918) was a French teacher and women's rights activist. She became Grand Mistress of the Supreme Council of Le Droit Humain.
Marie Bonnevial was born on 28 June 1841 in Rive-de-Gier, Loire, to a poor family. She was able to go to school, and under the Second French Empire (1852-1870) she was a secular school teacher in Lyon. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71) she served as a volunteer nurse.
In 1871 Marie Bonnevial joined the movement of the Paris Commune. She agitated for the creation of a teachers' union. The government deprived her of her job because of her support for the Communards and for those who were convicted after the suppression of the commune began on 28 May 1871. She left the country and joined her aunt in Turkey, where she taught French to the children of the commercial bourgeoisie. Victor Hugo wrote her a supportive letter on 17 September 1872 urging her to keep fighting and saying all honorable people admired her. In 1877 she returned to France, and created a vocational school in the 18th arrondissement of Paris.
Marie Bonnevial became involved with various groups interested in spiritualism and literature. She was also a feminist, syndicalist and socialist. She became active in the Ligue des droits des femmes (League of Women's Rights), where she met Maria Deraismes and Clémence Royer. The secretary of the Fédération Française des Sociétés Féministes, Aline Valette, founded the weekly tabloid L'Harmonie sociale which first appeared on 15 October 1892. The masthead had the message: "The emancipation of women is in emancipated labor". Some of the contributors to the journal included Eliska Vincent, Marie Bonnevial and Marya Chéliga-Loevy.
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