Madeleine Pelletier (18 May 1874 – 29 December 1939)[1] was a French psychiatrist, first-wave feminist, and political activist. Born in Paris, Pelletier frequented socialist and anarchist groups in her adolescence. She became a doctor in her twenties, overcoming a large educational gap, and was France's first woman to receive a doctorate in psychiatry. Pelletier joined freemasonry, the French Section of the Workers' International, and came to lead a feminist association. She set out to join the October Revolution but returned disillusioned. In France, she continued to advocate for feminist and communist causes, and wrote numerous articles, essays, and literary works, even following a stroke in 1937 which made her hemiplegic. Pelletier was charged with having performed an abortion in 1939 despite her condition precluding her ability to perform this act. She was placed in a mental asylum where her health deteriorated and she died of a second stroke later that year.
Following her break with anthropology Pelletier went on to become a psychiatrist. In 1903, Pelletier conducted a campaign with the support of the feminist newspaper La Fronde to support the eligibility of women for all types of medical specialisation, most relevantly to the examination for psychiatric internships.[3]
She was also notable as a female Freemason. Pelletier was a member of the La Nouvelle Jérusalemlodge, becoming a member in 1904. The lodge had both male and female members, and, although politically active, she was often at odds with her lodge in her efforts to promote the emancipation of women.[4]
A staunch feminist, Pelletier fought for women's suffage and abortion. In July 1906, she and other suffragists, including Caroline Kauffmann, invaded the French Chamber of Deputies and showered down from the gallery pink slips of paper containing an appeal for the right to vote.[5]
Pelletier was partially paralyzed by a stroke in 1937. However, she continued to openly practice abortion, and was arrested in 1939. Following her arrest she was interned in an asylum and her physical and mental health deteriorated. She died within the year.[6]
Works
Les lois morbides de l'association des idées,Jean Rousset, 1904
La Femme en lutte pour ses droits, V. Giard et E. Brière, Paris, 1908
Dieu, la morale, la patrie, V. Giard et E. Brière, Paris, 1910
Philosophie sociale: Les opinions, les partis, les classes, V. Giard et E. Brière, Paris, 1912
Le Droit à l’avortement, Éditions du Malthusien, Paris, 1913
La question du vote des femmes, 1919
Oeuvres diverses, Marcel Giard, Paris, 1922
Mon voyage aventureux en Russie communiste, Marcel Giard, Paris, 1922
La Guerre est-elle naturelle suivi de Le Droit au travail pour la femme, La Brochure mensuelle, Paris, 1931
Une vie nouvelle, Eugène Figuière, 1932
La Femme vierge, 1933
Pelletier in 1910 for Agence Rol
Pelletier dressed like a man to distance herself from femininity, a concept that she saw as a sign of the oppression of women.
France, like England, has its Suffragettes Excelsior, December 13,1910
Plaque honoring Pelletier in 80-82 rue de Gergovie, Paris
^Charles Sowerwine, Woman's brain, man's brain: feminism and anthropology in late nineteenth-century France, in Women's History Review vol. 12, pp=289–308
Allen, C. S. (2003). "Sisters of Another Sort: Freemason Women in Modern France, 1725–1940". The Journal of Modern History, 75: 783–835.
Gordon, F. (1990). The Integral Feminist, Madeleine Pelletier, 1874 – 1939, Feminism, Socialism and Medicine. Polity Press
Sowerwine, C. (1991). "Activism and Sexual Identity – the Life and Words of Pelletier, Madeleine (1874–1939)". Mouvement Social, 157: 9–32.
Sowerwine, C. (2003). "Woman’s Brain, Man’s Brain: feminism and anthropology in late nineteenth-century France". Women’s History Review, 12:289–307.
Felicia Gordon, "Convergence and conflict: anthropology, psychiatry and feminism in the early writings of Madeleine Pelletier (1874—1939)," History of Psychiatry, 19,2 (2008), 141–162.
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