Many of these wives were involved in Masonic activities, although they were forbidden from entering Freemasonry itself by its founding texts of 1723.
The force exerted by militants like Flora Tristan, Louise Michel and Maria Deraismes was decisive, however, with Deraismes received and initiated into a male lodge in 1882 and founding, with Georges Martin, the Ordre maçonnique mixte international " le Droit humain " in 1893.
Female Freemasonry from then on became established, via the lodges of adoption, on which the male Freemasons unilaterally decided to confer autonomy in 1935.
They disappeared during the German occupation of France, with several members deported and others operating in secret and engaging in Resistance activity.
During the following decade, 76 women's lodges were created in France, Switzerland and Belgium and other rites were accepted.