Marguerite Durand Marguerite Durand ( January 24 , 1864 – March 16 , 1936 ) was a French stage actress , journalist , and a leading suffragette . Born into a middle-class family , Marguerite Durand was sent to study at a Roman Catholic convent . After finishing her primary education , she entered the Conservatoire de Paris before joining the Comédie Française . In 1888 , she gave up her career in the theatre to marry an up-and-coming young lawyer , Georges Laguerre . A friend and follower of the politically ambitious army general Georges Boulanger , her husband introduced her to the world of radical politics and involved her in writing pamphlets for the `` Boulangists '' movement . However , the marriage was short-lived and in 1891 the couple separated after which Durand took a job writing for Le Figaro , the leading newspaper of the day . In 1896 , the paper sent her to cover the Congrès Féministe International ( International Feminist Congress ) ostensibly to write a humorous article . She came away from the event a greatly changed person , so much so that the following year on December 9 , 1897 she founded a feminist daily newspaper , La Fronde to pick up where Hubertine Auclert 's La Citoyenne left off . Durand 's newspaper , run exclusively by women , advocated for women 's rights , including admission to the Bar association and the École des Beaux-Arts . As well , its editorials demanded women be allowed to be named to the Legion of Honor and to participate in parliamentary debates . This included , later in 1910 , Durand 's attempt to organize female candidates for the legislative elections . At the 1900 World 's Fair in Paris , she organized the Congress For The Rights of Women . As well as establishing a summer residence for female journalists in Pierrefonds in the Picardie region , Durand turned to activism for working women , helping to organize several trade unions . Marguerite Durand , consumed by a passion for the equality of women , was also an attractive woman of style and elegance who was famous for walking the streets of Paris with her pet lion she named `` Tiger. '' Instrumental in the establishing of the zoological Cimetière des Chiens in the Parisian suburb of Asnières-sur-Seine where her lion was eventually interred , her activism raised the profile of feminism in France and Europe to an unprecedented level of respectability . Along the way , she compiled an enormous collection of papers that she gifted to the government in 1931 . The following year , the Bibliothèque Marguerite Durand opened in Paris and remains to this day one of the best sources in the world for research into feminism and women 's history . Details of Marguerite Durand can be found in the English language in American Professor Mary Louise Roberts ' 2002 book , Disruptive Acts : The New Woman in Fin-de-Siècle France . In the French language there is MARGUERITE DURAND ( 1864-1936 ) `` La Fronde '' féministe ou `` Le Temps '' by Jean Rabaut published in 1996 . Categories : 1864 births | 1936 deaths | Feminist artists | French journalists | French suffragists | Community organizers In other languages : Deutsch 