Madeleine Sylvain-Bouchereau

Madeleine Sylvain-Bouchereau (July 5, 1905 –1970) was a pioneering Haitian sociologist and educator. In 1934, she was one of the principal founders of the Ligue Féminine d'Action Sociale (Women's Social Action League), the first feminist organization registered in Haiti.

Biography Born on 5 July 1905 in Port-au-Prince, she was the daughter of the poet and diplomat Georges Sylvain and his wife Eugénie Mallebranche. A brilliant student, she was educated in Haiti, Puerto Rico and the United States, graduating in law at the University of Haiti in 1933, studying education and sociology at the University of Puerto-Rico (1936–38) and at Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, where she earned a doctorate in sociology in 1941. Her thesis Haïti et ses femmes. Une étude d’évolution culturelle (Haiti and its Women. A Study of Cultural Evolution) was published in 1957.

With a view to improving social and economic conditions for women, together with several other women from the upper and middle classes, she established the Ligue Féminine d'Action Sociale (Feminine League for Social Action). Sylvain-Bouchereau played an important part in contributing to La Voix des Femmes, the organization's journal.

Madeleine Sylvain-Bouchereau died in 1970 in New York City.

Selected works Sylvain-Bouchereau, Madeleine (1944), Education des femmes en Haïti, Port-au-Prince, Imp. de l’Etat. Sylvain-Bouchereau, Madeleine (1944), Lecture Haïtienne : La Famille Renaud, Port-au-Prince, Editions Henri Deschamps. Sylvain-Bouchereau, Madeleine (1946), "Les Droits des femmes et la nouvelle Constitution", in La Femme haïtienne répond aux attaques formulées contre elle à l’Assemblée constituante, Port-au-Prince, Société d’Editions et de Librairie. Sylvain-Bouchereau, Madeleine (1950), "La Classe moyenne en Haïti", in Matériaux pour l’étude de la classe moyenne en Amérique Latine, Washington, Département des Sciences sociales de l’union panaméricaine. Sylvain-Bouchereau, Madeleine (1957), Haïti et ses femmes. Une étude d’évolution culturelle, Port-au-Prince, Les Presses Libres.