In the run-up to International Women’s Day, we contribute to the dissemination of knowledge about women that have broken the bias by achieving outstanding accomplishments in their respective fields, by updating and translating into our local languages the Wikipedia pages of five exceptional women, each representing one of the countries we are present in.
Our second nominee is early feminist political campaigner and the first woman in Belgium to obtain a doctorate in Law, Marie Popelin.
Although no law or regulation explicitly prevented the admission of women to the Bar, her admission was denied. Popelin went on to have an active career as the leader of Belgian League for Women’s Rights.
The “Affaire Popelin” demonstrated to the supporters of female education that simply providing young women with access to higher education was insufficient unless further, legal, changes were also made. The affair contributed to the transition from an educational feminism to a political women’s movement in Belgium.
Find out more about Marie Popelin on:
- https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Popelin
- https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Popelin
- https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Popelin
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