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.

Maria Deraismes was a French author, Freemason, and major pioneering force for women's rights.