Céleste Hardouin

Céleste Hardouin (1832–1904) was a school teacher who advocated for lay education for women.

Denounced for having participated in the Paris Commune in 1871, she was arrested and imprisoned. She wrote an account about her captivity. After her release, she resumed teaching, founded a school and campaigned for feminism and secularism.

She was the founder of the French League for the Improvement of Women's Work, and took part in several workers' congresses, where she affirmed in particular the need for compulsory education to solve the question of women's work. She also proposed a plan for women's education to promote gender equality.

Biography Hardouin was born Céleste Toulmé on 12 July 1832 in Bréhémont. On 4 February 1850 she married Pierre Hardouin, who worked as a cooper and then a saddler.

She moved to Paris, where she became a teacher in the 18th arrondissement.

She was nevertheless denounced as a communard and was arrested in her classroom on 7 July. She was falsely accused of having run two political clubs and a barricade.

Imprisonment Hardouin was incarcerated at Versailles, first in the Orangerie, then in the Chantiers prison for women and children. During a preparatory meeting on 12 August, she notably intervened to affirm that only compulsory education could solve the problem of women's work. The Catholic journal described her as a "socialist missionary" but echoed the speech she had given at Lyon and the objectives that she had fixed in . For the election to the chair of the board of one of the meetings, her name was acclaimed, but after discussion she was excluded from the position, because the law did not allow women as chairmen. On 2 February, she gave a long speech on instruction, professional training, and apprenticeship, which was interspersed with and followed by copious applause. She then took part in the workers' congress at Le Havre in 1880, where she represented "free and secular women teachers".

Her feminism, however, remained moderate. According to , the that she had created was not fully feminist, and according to Le Maitron, she believed that a woman's place was above all in the home. Hardouin went to the station to meet Michel in November 1880 after she was released, but according to police reports she argued with her the following month.

Teaching Hardouin was also renowned for her teaching. Described as "active and hard-working", she founded and directed the Villa Poissonnière school in Goutte d'Or, which was also a boarding school.

Death She died in the 18th arrondissement of Paris on 9 January 1904.

Works

La Détenue de Versailles en 1871, Paris, 1879. – Several editions, recently Len Pod, 2017 .