Suzanne Voilquin
| Suzanne Voilquin | |
|---|---|
1839 portrait
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| Born |
Suzanne Monnier 1801 Paris |
| Died |
c. 1876–1877 Paris |
| Nationality | French |
Suzanne Monnier Voilquin (1801 – December 1876 or January 1877) was a French feminist, journalist, midwife, traveler and author, best known as editor of Tribune des femmes (), the first working-class feminist periodical, and her memoirs, Souvenirs d’une fille du peuple: ou, La saint-simonienne en Égypt.
Suzanne Voilquin (née Monnier) was born in Paris in 1801 to a working-class family. She received some convent education, and spent most of her youth nursing her dying mother, raising her little sister and working as an embroiderer.
Suzanne met and married Eugène Voilquin, an architect in 1825. The couple became supporters of Saint-Simonism, a Utopian Socialist movement that adhered to the philosophy of Comte de Saint-Simon. Its leaders included Barthélemy Prosper Enfantin and Saint-Amand Bazard. Suzanne Voilquin was particularly attracted to the Movement’s call to women and workers, “the poorest and most numerous class.” The Saint-Simonian’s popularity and their belief in the liberation of women brought the group into trouble with the French authorities. After a spectacular trial, Enfantin, Charles Duveyrier and Michel Chevalier were jailed in 1832 and the movement dispersed. Suzanne, in the meantime, granted Eugène an unofficial “Saint-Simonian” divorce, since divorce was illegal in France. She gave him her blessing and he left for Louisiana.
From 1832-1834, Suzanne wrote for and edited The Tribune des femmes, the first known working-class, feminist journal (Its editors rejected the use of last names, as subordinating the women to either their fathers or their husbands). Suzanne and the other writers, including Marie-Reine Guindorf and Désirée Gay (Jeanne Desirée Véret Gay) stressed the need for women’s rights to divorce, education and work. Suzanne, in particular, emphasized the need for the protection of mothers. In 1834 Suzanne also published Ma loi d’Avenir by fellow Saint-Simonian Claire Démar after she and her lover, Perret Desessarts, killed themselves.
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