Julie-Victoire Daubié (1824–1874)

Julie-Victoire Daubié was born in Bains-les-Bains, France. Her father was a civil servant who died when she was a toddler. Her mother moved herself and the children to Fontenoy-le-Château to be closer to their family. Julie-Victoire attended primary school there and studied with her brother, a priest, who taught her Latin, Greek, history, geography and German. She won first prize in a competition from the Académie des sciences et belles-lettres in Lyon in 1859 with an essay entitled La Femme pauvre au XIXe siècle (The Poor Woman in the 19th Century). In 1861, she became the first Frenchwoman to pass the examination for the baccaleuréat, at a time when women could not yet enroll in higher education. When the Lyon authorities would not issue her the diploma, her mentor François Arlès-Dufour, a businessman, successfully appealed to the Emperor Napoleon III on her behalf. Between 1866 and 1869, she did research in order to expand and publish La femme pauvre du XIXe siècle in book form. She became an entrepreneur -- buying an embroidery company -- a journalist, a feminist and a woman of letters. She corresponded with well-known literary figures such as Georges Sand, Alexandre Dumas fils, Josephine Butler, Jules Simon, and Léon Richet. She died at age 50 in 1874 from tuberculosis.