Cathy Bernheim

Cathy Bernheim (10 April 1946 – 8 April 2025) was a French novelist and an influential feminist activist. She started off the Mouvement de Libération des Femmes (Women's Liberation Movement or MLF). She was also a member of the Gouines Rouges, a radical feminist lesbian movement. She authored many books about feminism and the fight for reproductive rights, and gender equality, and against sexual violence in France. Cathy Bernheim was later an author, speaker, journalist, editor, and activist who translated several works of English feminist literature. Bernheim used art as a means of activism and participated in two exhibitions by activist Delphine Seyrig. The different perspectives she brought as an author challenged traditional gender roles when discussing feminism in France.

Background Cathy Bernheim was born on 10 April 1946, in Saint-Raphaël. Bernheim was raised Catholic, the religion of her mother, while her father was a Jewish resistance freedom fighter. She moved to Paris and worked at the Lucernaire Theater.

Bernheim died in Paris on 8 April 2025, at the age of 78.

Career Bernheim, an influential and well-known feminist activist, is considered a pioneer of the Mouvement de Libération des Femmes (Women’s Liberation Movement). Founded in 1970, this movement fought against patriarchy in France, and for women’s rights. Between 1967 and 1969, she worked in cinema and wrote films in Paris such as Trop près des Dieux, and La mal-aimée. Later on in her life, she became an editor at Prisma Media, a Spanish media and news organization. Her words, "There is more unknown than the unknown soldier: his wife," were displayed on banners during the demonstration, which was the first monumental act of the movement.

Bernheim focused on issues ranging from sexual assault, domestic and political equality, and a rejection of misogynistic beauty standards, to the fight for reproductive justice for women. She advocated for the teenage girls at Château de la Solitude, an institution for young single mothers, and supported these girls in a hunger strike. Bernheim was one of 36 artists who contributed to the exhibitions, which were shown from 2019 to 2023. The exhibitions were titled, "Defiant Muses," and "Defiant Muses: Delphine Seyrig and The Feminist Collectives of 1970s and 1980s France," and were meant to convey a history of feminism through film and photography. It focused on a criticism of sexism in the movie industry and how women have the ability to be successful in their struggle for self-determination within politics.

Literary legacy Perturbation, My Soeur by Cathy Bernheim delves into the complexities of familial relationships, focusing on the bond between two sisters. The novel tracks two 20th-century French sisters, exploring their differing personalities, experiences, and emotional dynamics. Perturbation, My Soeur contributes to French feminism by exploring female experiences, autonomy, identity, and societal pressures within a patriarchal framework. It also navigates sexuality and intimacy, including elements of lesbian desires or relationships that challenged societal norms in the sisters' lives.

Books Le livre de l'oppression des femmes: (Translation): The Book of the Oppression of Women, Paris, Belfond, 1972 Les femmes s'entêtent: (Translation): Women are Stubborn, Paris, Gallimard, 1975 Le sexisme ordinaire: (Translation): Ordinary Sexism, Paris, Le Seuil, 1979 Perturbation ma sœur. Naissance d'un mouvement: (Translation): Disturbance My Sister. Birth of a Movement 1970-1972, Paris, Le Seuil, 1983 L'amour presque parfait: (Translation): Almost Perfect Love Paris, edition of the Félin, 1991 L'amour presque parfait: (Translation): Almost Perfect Love Paris, Le Félin, 2003 Dors, ange amer: (Translation): Sleep, Bitter Angel Paris, Seuil, 2005 Perturbation ma sœur:naissance d'un mouvement de femmes (Translation): Disturbance My Sister. Birth of a Movement 1970-1972, Paris, Le Félin, 2010