Augustin Barruel was a French journalist, intellectual, and Jesuit priest. He is now mostly known for setting forth the conspiracy theory involving the Bavarian Illuminati and the Jacobins in his book Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism published in 1797. In short, Barruel wrote that the French Revolution was planned and executed by the secret societies.
The International Order of Freemasonry Le Droit Humain is a global Masonic Order, membership of which is available to men and women on equal terms, regardless of nationality, religion or ethnicity.
Freemasonry has had a complex relationship with women for centuries. A few women were involved in Freemasonry before the 18th century, despite de jure prohibitions in the Premier Grand Lodge of England.
The Women's Grand Lodge Of France is the Grand Lodge of France's women-only Masonic lodges.
Georges Martin was a French doctor, politician and Freemason.
Élie Reclus was a French ethnographer and anarchist.
Marie Bonnevial was a French teacher and women's rights activist. She became Grand Mistress of the Supreme Council of Le Droit Humain.
Eliska Vincent was a Utopian socialist and militant feminist in France. She argued that women had lost civil rights that existed in the Middle Ages, and these should be restored. In the late 1880s and 1890s she was one of the most influential of the Parisian feminists. She created extensive archives on the feminist movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries, but these have been lost.
Léon-Pierre Richer was a French free-thinker, freemason, journalist and feminist who worked closely with Maria Deraismes during the early years of the feminist movement in Paris. He edited Le Droit des femmes, a feminist journal that appeared from 1869 to 1891. He was founder of the Ligue française pour le droit des femmes, one of the main feminist organizations in France in the 1880s. However, Richer was concerned that women were not sufficiently educated in republican principles, and that giving them the vote could cause a clericalist and monarchist reaction and the loss of democracy.
Le Droit des femmes was a French feminist journal that appeared from 1869 to 1891. It was founded and edited by Léon Richer, and in the early days supported financially by Maria Deraismes. The newspaper supported many women's causes, but always avoided directly supporting women's suffrage. It was one of the longest running journals of its type in the 19th century.
The Ligue Française pour le Droit des Femmes was a women's rights organisation active in France from 1882.
Pierre Zaccone was a popular 19th-century French novelist.
Ernest Charles Guy de Girard, count then marquis de Charnacé was a French writer, journalist, agronomist and musicologist. In Anjou, he was called the "hero of Bois-Montbourcher".
Maria Pognon née Rengnet was a French journalist, editor, feminist, suffragist, pacifist and freemason, who is remembered for her success as a women's rights activist in the late 19th century. From 1892 to 1903, she was president of the Ligue Française pour le Droit des Femmes, and was also a member of the pacifist association Société française pour l'arbitrage entre nations. As a freemason, she was one of the 17 founders of the Loge du Droit humain, which was open to both men and women.
Éliane Brault was a French Resistance member, a political personality and a French journalist, also known for her commitment to feminism and her involvement in Freemasonry, especially within the Universal Mixed Grand Lodge, of which she was the first Grand Mistress.
Maryse Paillet born in Limoges and died at an indeterminate date after 1970, was a French singer and actress.
Anna Féresse-Deraismes was a French feminist activist for women's rights and a Freemason. She was appointed honorary president of the International Congress of Women in 1896 and 1900, and was a founding member of the first mixed-gender Masonic Order, Le Droit Humain. Maria Deraismes was her sister.
Stella Blandy was a French writer and a committed feminist. A contributor to the literary journals Revue contemporaine and Revue des deux mondes, she wrote novels and essays, and also translated English and Italian works into French. Blandy died in 1925.
Céleste Hardouin (1832–1904) was a school teacher who advocated for lay education for women.
Alice Jouenne was a French educator and socialist activist. During the interwar period, Jouenne focused on education, pacifism, and feminism. She was one of the founders of Éducation nouvelle en France.
