Jeanne Elizabeth Schmahl was a French feminist, born in Britain. She married a well-off husband who supported her while she worked as a midwife's assistant in Paris. She decided to avoid politics and

Maria Deraismes was a French author, feminist orator, and Freemason. She was the first woman initiated into Freemasonry in France and co-founded Le Droit Humain, the first mixed-gender Masonic order.