La Française, subtitled Journal de progrès féminin, was a French language reformist feminist weekly newspaper published in France. It was founded in 1906 by feminist Jane Misme, who ran it until 1926, when Cécile Brunschvicg, the future under-secretary of state under the Popular Front, took over. The title was published until 1940. This weekly gave a national audience to the cause of women's suffrage. It even became the mouthpiece for the French Union for Women's Suffrage, founded by Jeanne Schmahl in 1909.

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 religion and to focus on specific and practical feminist goals. She led a successful campaign to change the laws so women could legally bear witness and could control their own earnings. She launched the French Union for Women's Suffrage to campaign for the right of women to vote, but that was not achieved in her lifetime.