Alice Mathieu-Dubois

Alice Sollier (, later Alice Mathieu-Dubois; 3 April 1861 – 29 January 1942) was a French doctor. She was the first black woman to earn a bachelor's degree in France and in 1887 became the first black French woman to qualify as a medical doctor. She was the first French female physician to become the director of a private healthcare facility.

Early life and education

Alice Maille was born on 3 April 1861 in Compiègne to Flore-Hortense Maille and Mathieu Victoire, known as Dubois. Her mother was white, and her father was black. Her father had been enslaved in the colony of French Guiana but freed in 1834. He was a dentist by the time of Alice's birth. Her parents married on 8 May 1867, some years after Alice's birth, and she took the surname Mathieu-Dubois, based on her father's first name and part of his surname. Her mother died six months after the wedding, after which her father then took sole responsibility for her education. Another newspaper, , noted in 1881 that only two young women had taken and passed the second part of the baccalaureate in arts (philosophy), earning a "fairly good" grade and the congratulations of the jury. One of them was "a young black woman, already a bachelor of science, Mlle Mathieu-Dubois, who had begun her medical studies with a view to obtaining a doctorate in medicine".

Mathieu-Dubois enrolled at the University of Paris Faculty of Medicine. Women had only been allowed to enroll at the Faculty of Medicine since 1869 when Madeleine Brès had successfully made her case to be admitted. She was ranked 72nd out of 254 in the exam. Her future husband ranked 32nd. Two other women passed the externship exam alongside her. After leaning towards dentistry like her father, she eventually turned her attention to nervous disorders. described her as "a tall, beautiful person with slightly brownish skin, large black eyes, invariably dressed in a blue dress with a masculine cut, without any frills" and stated that she was well-known on the Left Bank in Paris because of her summer walks in the Jardin du Luxembourg with a book in her hand.

Sollier registered for the internship competition at the same time as Blanche Edwards but did not take the exams, possibly because she was discouraged by the demonstrations organised by many students against the presence of women on the day of the competition, as well as by racist remarks from fellow students and the press.

Career From 1889 to 1897, Sollier and her husband ran the Villa Montsouris clinic on Rue de la Santé in Paris. In doing so, she became the first woman to run a private healthcare facility dedicated to nervous disorders. Marcel Proust was a patient at the clinic and featured elements of the treatment in his novel, In Search of Lost Time. From April 1897 to June 1921, Alice Sollier co-managed the Boulogne-sur-Seine sanatorium with her husband, which specialised in the treatment of nervous system disorders and drug addiction (particularly morphine).

In 1904, Sollier was interviewed by Gabrielle Réval for the daily newspaper and for Réval's book, (The Future of Our Daughters), about her role in the medical and practical management of the sanatorium, the place of young women in medical studies, and medical careers for women.

From June 1921 or 1922 onwards, Sollier practised as a doctor at the Saint-Cloud neurological clinic.

Sollier remained in Saint-Cloud until her house and clinic were requisitioned by the Germans during the Occupation of World War II. She lived with her daughter at the Sainte-Anne Hospital, where her daughter's husband worked, then on Rue d'Alésia, Paris, where she died on 29 January 1942.

Legacy

Following proposals to name a street for her in Crépy-en-Valois, on 20 December 2024, the conseil municipal de Compiègne approved the creation of a street bearing Alice Sollier's maiden name in the Musicians' Quarter, which was inaugurated in 2025.

In 2026, Sollier was announced as one of 72 historical women in STEM whose names have been proposed to be added to the 72 men already celebrated on the Eiffel Tower. The plan was announced by the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, following the recommendations of a committee led by Isabelle Vauglin of Femmes et Sciences and Jean-François Martins, representing the operating company which runs the Eiffel Tower.