Marie Lacoste Gérin-Lajoie
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Marie Lacoste Gérin-Lajoie (1867-1945) was a pioneer Quebec feminist who founded the Fédération nationale Saint-Jean-Baptiste (in 1907), an organization which campaigned for social and political rights for women. In addition to its legal work, the Federation nationale also championed social causes such as providing milk for children and mothers, fighting alcoholism and illness, raising awareness of infant mortality, and various other issues that affected women's lives.
Marie Lacoste married a lawyer, Henry Gérin-Lajoie, on the condition that he give her the freedom to continue her campaign for women's rights. She was 20 when they married. The couple raised four children.
In addition to her campaign for more legal rights for women, Lacoste Gerin-Lajoie also played a part in arguing for French-language university education for the women of Quebec. Partly in response to her actions, the Quebec Catholic clergy agreed to open the first Quebec women's college, in 1908. In 1922, Lacoste-Gerin-Lajoie led a protest for women's suffrage in Quebec. Quebec was the last Canadian province to grant the vote to women, in 1940.
Lacoste Gérin-Lajoie was a professor at the Universite de Montreal, and a self-taught legal expert (her father and husband were both lawyers, and she had access to their books). She was the author of two legal works: Traité de droit usuel, in 1902 and La femme et le code civil, in 1929. In these books, Lacoste Gérin-Lajoie argued against the subordinate legal position of married women. In this time, women had no control over their own financial assets and no legal input into the financial affairs of their families. She wanted to grant more rights to married and separated women so they could control their own property. In 1931, the Quebec Civil Code was changed to reflect the changes Lacoste Gerin-Lajoie had been arguing for.
She was designated a National Historic Person by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.
[edit] Further Reading
Forster, Merna. 100 Canadian Heroines. Electronic Edition. Dundurn Group, 2004.
Library & Archives Canada. Marie Lacoste Gérin-Lajoie. [1]
Sicotte, Anne-Marie. Marie Gérin-Lajoie: Conquérante de la Liberté. Montreal: Remue-ménage, 2005. [This biography is in French]
