Zoé Charlotte de Gamond (11 February 1806 – 28 February 1854) was aBelgian educator and feminist who sometimes wrote under the pseudonymMarie de G***.
Zoé de Gamond was born inBrussels into a wealthy liberal family. Her father, Pierre-Joseph de Gamond, was a lawyer and professor after 1830 in the independent Kingdom of Belgium.[1] Her mother, Elisabeth-Angélique de Ladoz, was of noble origin and held regularsalons through which Zoé became active in politics.[2]
Originally, together with her friendJulie du Bosch, a partisan ofSaint-Simon, she later abandoned his ideas for those of theutopian socialistCharles Fourier. In the early 1830s she was active in supporting Italian andPolish political exiles. It was at this time that she met Polish nationalistJan Czyński, with whom she wroteLe Roi des Paysans. She also produced writings onfeminism in the mid-1830s. On 18 March 1835 she married the Italian artist Jean-Baptiste Gatti, thereafter often using the name "Gatti de Gamond".[1]
She and her sisterÉlisa de Gamond held salons, learning about politics at a time when women were excluded, notably by participating in the salons held by their mother. This beginning of political life was in line with the revolutionary events of 1830. Later, the two sisters held salons twice a week, as their mother had done in the past.[2][3]
In the late 1830s the Gattis left Brussels for Paris, where Zoé wrote a successful work, reprinted five times and translated into English, on Fourier's philosophy. With the support of two wealthy English Fourierists, the Gattis established aphalanstère atCîteaux in 1842. This proved to be a financial disaster for them, and they returned to Brussels and a life of relative poverty.[2] In the 1840s, Zoé wrote two novels,Fièvres de l'âme (1844) andLe Monde enviable (1846), as well as an overview of biblical history for use in schools,Abrégé de l'histoire sainte (1848).[1]
On 21 June 1847, Zoé was appointed inspector of girls' schools for the city of Brussels.[4] She published several educational manuals, along with a guide to running anursery school.[2]
She died in 1854, aged only 48, leaving two young daughters who also went on to become educationalists, Marie andIsabelle, the latter also a noted Belgian feminist.[1]
