Léonie Rouzade (1839–1916)

Léonie Rouzade was born Louise-Léonie Camusat in Paris, the daughter of a watchmaker. In 1860, at age 22, after working as an embroiderer, she married Auguste Rouzade, a left-leaning accountant in Meudon, a southwestern suburb, where they settled. She became a women's rights activist, and in 1878, participated in the First International Congress of Women's Rights in Paris. Léonie wrote as a journalist for Le Prolétaire, the journal of the Parti Ouvrier (Workers' Party), and spoke at party conferences. In 1880, with Eugénie Potonié-Pierre, she founded the Union des femmes (UdF), the first socialist women's association in France. In 1881, she ran as a socialist candidate in the municipal elections for the 12th arrondissement of Paris, but faced strong opposition. In 1891, she joined La Solidarité des femmes, founded by Eugénie Potonié-Pierre, and was a member until around 1901, when she left after the founder's death. Among her other works, she wrote two scathingly satirical feminist novels published in 1872: Le Monde renversé (The World Turned Upside Down) and Voyage de Théodose à l'île de l'Utopie (A Voyage to the Isle of Utopia). In 1896, she published a feminist-socialist pamphlet called La Femme et le peuple, organisation sociale de demain. The Rue Léonie Rouzade in Meudon is named in her honor.