Marie Lacoste Gérin-Lajoie

Who was Marie Lacoste Gérin-Lajoie?

Marie Lacoste Gérin-Lajoie was a pioneer Quebec feminist who founded the Fédération nationale Saint-Jean-Baptiste, 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, Gérin-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 francophone women's college, in 1908. In 1922, Gérin-Lajoie led a protest for women's suffrage in Quebec. Quebec was the last Canadian province to grant the vote to women, in 1940.

Gérin-Lajoie was a professor at the Université de Montréal, and a self-taught legal expert.