Marie Popelin | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Photograph portrait of Marie Popelin | |
| Born | (1846-12-16)16 December 1846 |
| Died | 5 June 1913(1913-06-05) (aged 66) Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium |
| Occupations | jurist, teacher, political campaigner |
| Known for | First woman to receive a law doctorate in Belgium |
Marie Popelin (16 December 1846 – 5 June 1913) was a Belgianjurist and earlyfeminist political campaigner. Popelin worked withIsabelle Gatti de Gamond in the development of women's education and, in 1888, became the first Belgian woman to receive adoctorate in law. After her accession to the bar was refused, Popelin went on to have an active career as the leader of the Belgian League for Women's Rights. She died in 1913 without ever gaining admission to the bar.
Marie Popelin was born inSchaerbeek nearBrussels into a middle-class family on 16 September 1846.[1] One of her brothers was a doctor, another an army officer—Marie Popelin was well educated by the standards of the time and place. Along with her sister Louise, she taught in Brussels at an institution run by the leading feminist teacherIsabelle Gatti de Gamond from 1864 to 1875. Disagreements with Gatti led to the sisters moving toMons to run a new school for girls there, established withLiberal assistance. In 1882, Marie Popelin returned to Brussels to head the middle school in nearbyLaeken, but was removed from her post the following year.[2]
At the age of 37, Popelin enrolled at theFree University of Brussels, studying law. Completing her studies as aDoctor of Laws in 1888, Popelin was the first woman to do so in Belgium. She applied for admission to thebar association (barreau) which would allow her to plead cases in the Belgian courts. Her application was refused, although no law or regulation explicitly prevented the admission of women to the bar.[3] Her appeals to thecourt of appeal in December 1888 and, in November 1889, to theCourt of Cassation were unsuccessful, but widely reported in the Belgian and foreign press.[4][5] The "Popelin affair" (Affaire Popelin) demonstrated to the supporters offemale education that simply providing young women with access to higher education was insufficient unless further, legal, changes were also made.[6] The affair contributed to the transition from an educational feminism to a political women's movement in Belgium.[7]Jeanne Chauvin, who obtained a law degree in Paris in 1890, was at first discouraged by the case, but was persuaded by the Belgian lawyerLouis Frank, who represented Popelin before the court, to apply for admission to the bar, and was sworn in after the French law was changed in 1900.[8] In Belgium, women were only permitted to practice as lawyers from 1922.[9]
Marie Popelin participated in two feminist conferences in Paris in 1889, and established theBelgian League for the Rights of Women (Ligue belge du droit des femmes) in 1892 with the assistance ofIsala Van Diest andLéonie La Fontaine.[9] Popelin was a friend of American feministMay Wright Sewall, who she had met in Paris in 1889, and with Sewall's encouragement, the Belgian section of theInternational Council of Women was established from 1893. Popelin's efforts to create an independent feminist movement outside thepolitical pillars, not linked to theCatholic, Liberal, orSocialist parties, were only a partial success. TheNational Council of Belgian Women (Conseil national des femmes belges), created in 1905, received only limited support from the women's sections of the political parties.[citation needed]
In spite of this tepid initial reception, many of Popelin objectives were met before her death in 1913.[citation needed] These legislative reforms did not, however, include two of Popelin's most important demands: universal adult suffrage, and equal access to the liberal professions for women.Modern studies[citation needed] acknowledge Marie Popelin's central role in the creation of a Belgian feminist movement.
Popelin has been commemorated in numerous ways within Belgium. She featured on a Belgian postage stamp during theInternational Women's Year of 1975, and a road inSaint-Josse-ten-Noode was named after her in 2008. In 2011, Popelin, together with the first Belgian female doctor, Van Diest, were depicted on the Belgiantwo euro commemorative coin for the 1st centenary of theInternational Women's Day.[10] InDe Grootste Belg, a 2005 Flemish television poll to find the greatest Belgian of all time, Marie Popelin was ranked 42nd.
On 16 December 2020,Google celebrated her 174th birthday with aGoogle Doodle.[11]
| International | |
|---|---|
| People | |
