safsadfasdfMarie Denizard

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Marie Denizard

Marie Denizard's publicity image from the 1913 French presidential election
Born 3 April 1872
Pontru, France
Died 21 May 1959 (aged 87)
Leyme, France
Known for First woman to stand as a candidate in a French presidential election
Marie Denizard (3 April 1872 – 21 May 1959) was a French feminist activist. On 17
January 1913, she was the first woman to stand as a candidate in a French
presidential election. French women did not achieve suffrage until 1944.[1]

Early life
Marie Eugénie Gabriel Denizard was born on 3 April 1872 in Pontru,[2] the daughter
of Marie-Sophie-Julie Lesourd, a dressmaker, and Charles-Joseph Denizard, a
dentist. The Denizard family was originally from the Vermandois region, near Saint-
Quentin (Aisne). Her brother Orens Denizard [fr] was an artist and political
satirist.[3][4][5]

Marie Denizard attended the Lycée de Jeunes Filles d'Amiens, now the Lycée
Madeleine-Michelis.[6] In the early 1910s, after living for a time in Pontru,[7]
she moved to 6 rue Saint-Martin in Amiens, with her mother, who worked as a
culottière, and two younger sisters, Hélène (born 1885) and Madeleine (born 1887).
[8]

Feminism
Denizard became involved in the feminist cause in the last years of the nineteenth
century,[9] and is thought to have contributed to Marguerite Durand's feminist
publication La Fronde before 1910.[10] She also contributed to MP Paul Dussaussoy's
report in favour of women's suffrage, alongside other notable French female
suffrage campaigners.[9] The Napoleonic Code, established in 1804, declared the
legal and political incapacity of women, and was seen as and used as a barrier to
block attempts to improve women's political rights.[11]

Denizard also belonged to a temperance league in Amiens called l'Étoile bleue.[12]

Denizard announced her candidacy for the French Chamber of Deputies (parliament) in
the 1910 French legislative election, standing in the constituency of Amiens.[10]
[13] She stood on a platform demanding civil rights for women, campaigned against
the damage that alcoholism causes amongst the working classes, and against child
abandonment. However, as a woman, she was ineligible to stand for election, and
ballot papers bearing her name were not counted among the votes cast.[12] France
only granted women the right to vote and stand in elections in 1944, with their
first opportunity to use that right being on 29 April 1945.[11]

The same year, Denizard drafted a motion in favour of women's right to vote and
stand for election, which Louis-Lucien Klotz, MP and Radical conseiller général for
the canton of Rosières-en-Santerre, agreed to submit to the conseil général de la
Somme, which adopted it unanimously on 30 September 1910.[9] Denizard commented on
and justified the text in an article published in Le Chambard d'Amiens.[14]

Shortly afterwards, she published La Femme et la loi salique, the first in a series
of studies dedicated to the women of Picardy, exploring women's rights before 1789.
[15]

In March 1911, Denizard sent a letter to the prefect of the Somme asking to be
relieved of "all personal taxes and contributions" pointing out that since women
were deprived of all political rights, they "should not have to suffer laws or pay
taxes that they have not consented to". She argued that French women should not "be
taxed in a personal capacity, either directly or indirectly, as a duty must always
have as its immediate corollary the exercise of a right".[16]

In April 1912, she wrote an article based on personal research in which she put
forward the hypothesis of Jean-Baptiste Lully's Picard origins.[17] The fanciful
nature of this theory was demonstrated by Julien Tiersot in Le Ménestrel.[18]

Presidential candidacy
In Le Journal of 26 December 1912, the journalist Fernand Hauser wrote: "Feminists
have sometimes claimed that Congress can elect a woman; this is a mistake. The text
of the Constitution expressly states: 'The President of the Republic' in the
masculine form; there can therefore be no doubt. However, the Assembly, being
sovereign, would have the right to satisfy the wishes of women politicians; but let
one of them stand for election, and see...".[19]

Marie Denizard decided to take up the challenge and announced it to Hauser, who
interviewed her and published her photograph on the front page of Le Journal on 4
January 1913. Denizard pointed out that there had already been female heads of
state, citing the historical examples of the regents of the kingdom of France,
alongside Empress Catherine the Great of Russia and Queen Victoria of the United
Kingdom, as well as contemporary examples of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands
and Grand Duchess Marie-Adélaïde of Luxembourg. She told Hauser:[9]

My candidacy is not as fanciful as one might think. It means that women have the
right to take their share of government, since they pay their share of taxes: why
shouldn't widows, bachelors and divorcees vote? Why shouldn't they be eligible? Why
shouldn't married women have the right to replace their husbands in his civic
rights, authorised by him, when he is failing, ill or absent?
Denizard's testimonial candidacy was not taken seriously by male journalists. The
least sympathetic of them was the editorial writer Jean Ernest-Charles, who
considered Denizard's "childish and ostentatious candidacy" and "compromising
antics" akin to the British suffragettes, whose campaigns for women's rights he
branded as "sickly eccentricities" attributed to "hysteria" caused "by too long a
celibacy".[19] Disapproval was also expressed among feminists: Marguerite Durand
considered Denizard's candidacy to be nothing more than an "unfortunate joke"
detrimental to the credibility of the feminist movement.[20] Although she did not
give Denizard much attention, Jane Misme's La Française journal was more
sympathetic to this "simple demonstration of principle", which "achieved its
propaganda goal", and stressed that the candidate was "a zealous and serious
feminist".[21]

Denizard even had ballot papers printed in her name and drafted a profession of
faith that she sent to members of parliament.[22] The New York Times covered her
candidacy.[23] The same month, she wrote an article for Arria Ly's Le Combat
féministe.[24]

After 1913
In 1914, Marie Denizard contributed to the Cri des femmes, a weekly for which she
edited the Somme department's.[25] However, she soon came into conflict with the
paper's sponsor, Judge George Bonjean, who refused to pay her a fee.[26]

Denizard's financial situation became precarious, and she could no longer pay the
rent on the flat she and her mother occupied in rue Lavalard in Amiens.[27] On 6
May 1914, she was arrested after making threatening remarks to the bailiff sent by
her landlord.[28] Imprisoned for a fortnight, she was charged with insulting
behaviour and death threats.[29] In La Française, journalist Alice Berthet called
for solidarity with the former presidential candidate.[30] The Ligue de défense des
femmes provided her with a Parisian lawyer, Mr. Lenoble. In the end, the court was
lenient and only sentenced her to a 25-franc suspended fine for contempt.[31]

Later in 1914, she was evacuated to Bordeaux due to the First World War. She made
pacifist statements during this period which were not approved by the political
elite.[27] Denizard was then placed under surveillance by the Direction de la
Sûreté générale because of the resentment she expressed against her exclusion from
political life. This surveillance continued after the war and her return to Paris.
[19]

Thereafter, Denizard was much less in the news. In November 1922, she sent a
petition to the Senate in which she claimed to be a victim of abuse of power.[32]