Jenny
Poinsard d'Hericourt
1809-1875
France
Jenny's father was a Lutheran clock maker, and her
mother was a Swiss Calvinist. After the death of her father, the
family picked up and moved from Besancon to Paris. She married Michel-Gabriel-Joseph
Marie while in her twenties, and he tried to murder her so that he could
marry once again. This happening struck a chord inside of Jenny that
urged her to consider the fact that divorce should be legal in France.
After their separation, she published a novel against capital punishment
under the pseudonym Felix Lamb. She went on to study physiology and
later received a diploma as a physician.
Like many other philosophers, Jenny was a feminist, and she "denied that
feminists wanted special legislation to protect women from men. Rather,
she asserted, feminists want all legislation to be common to both sexes."
She spent most of her time and energy trying to explain that women were
equal to men in all aspects of life, and that there is a logical reason
for every difference between the two sexes. 3
return to home