Born in the Allier département in the Auvergne area of France into a middle-class family, Hubertine Auclert's father died when she was 13 and her mother sent her to live and study in a Roman Catholic convent.

The paper received vocal support from even the elite in the feminist movement, such as Séverine, and socialite Marie Bashkirtseff wrote several articles for the newspaper.

[2] At the Socialist Workers' Congress in Marseille in 1879, Auclert made passionate pleas for women's rights, but argued that they needed economic independence due to their "natural" motherhood.

In Algeria and on her return to France, Auclert pursued legal action to acknowledge the rights of Arab women, such as petitions for improved education, and the abolition of polygamy.

While her thoughts on Islamic culture were entrenched in imperial thinking, she made clear the negative influence of French colonialism on the societies in which they settled.

Unintentionally, her work in Algeria served as further justification for French colonialism as it highlighted the perceived degraded condition of Arab women under Algerian rule.

Clancy-Smith quotes that Auclert claimed Arab men rendered the women "little victims of Muslim debauchery," and must be "freed from their cages, walled homes, and cloisters" to assimilate into Frenchwomen.

Clancy-Smith argues that Auclert returned to Paris in 1892 without "any concrete results," other than ironically convincing many in France that the Algerians were too barbaric and unsuitable for political rights.

[7] In July 1907 married women in France were finally given incomplete control over their own salaries due to the lobbying of the Avant-Courrière (Forerunner) association led by Jeanne Schmahl.

[9] In November 1907, the General Council of the Seine yielded to pressure from Auclert and gave its support to Paul Dussaussoy's 1906 bill proposing limited women's suffrage.