Cimetière de Montmartre (continued): #10: Maria Deraismes

'MARIA DERAISMES

1828 – 1894

"MON BUT EST DE METTRE FIN AU

PRÉJUGÉ QUI EXCLUT LES FEMMES"'.

 "My aim is to put an end to the prejudice which excludes women."

An anti-Catholic feminist, Maria Deraismes actively supported such anarchists as Louise Michel, André Léo and Elisée Reclus. Her statue stands at the entrance to the Square des Épinettes in the 17e.

André Léo: Cimetière d'Auteuil, 16th arrondissement, Paris

'MME CHAMPSEIX

DITE LÉODILE BERA

DITE ANDRÉ LÉO

ROMANCIÈRE JOURNALISTE FÉMINISTE COMMUNARDE

1824 – 1900'

André Léo was born Victoire Léodile Béra, and unlike her friend the anarchist Louise Michel she was born into a bourgeois family, although she had a revolutionary grandfather. Her husband Grégoire Champseix (1817–63) was a journalist close to the socialist Pierre Leroux and is buried with her. She took her nom de plume from her twin sons (also buried here), and who she was left to bring up after her husband's death.

Léo lived by her pen and worked for the feminist cause, workers' rights, and affiliated herself with anarchist groups. She also lived in Switzerland and Italy – returning to France after the 1880 amnesty – and wrote a huge body of fiction and non-fiction.