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Elizabeth A.Sackler Center for Feminist Art

Clemence Royer

b. 1830, Nantes, France; d. 1902, Paris

Clémence Royer wrote and lectured on feminism, philosophy, science, economics, pacifism, and politics. In 1862, she translated Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species, to which she appended a controversial introduction. Royer was the first woman to be accepted as a full member to the Société d’Anthropologie (1870–85). In 1889, she served as an honorary president for the second meeting of the International Congress on Women’s Rights in France, and from 1893 to 1902 contributed articles to the French feminist newspaper La Fronde. She was awarded the Legion of Honor in 1890.