Marie Lacoste Gérin-Lajoie

She was a professor at the Université de Montréal, and a self-taught legal expert (her father and husband were both lawyers, and she had access to their books).

She was a pioneer of the feminist movement in Québec who co-founded the Fédération nationale Saint-Jean-Baptiste with Caroline Dessaulles-Béique (in 1907),[1] an organization which campaigned for social and political rights for women.

[5] At nine years old, she join the convent in Hochelaga and graduated from it at the age of fifteen in 1883 During this time, there were no francophone Catholic university programs in Quebec for women but Marie had a thirst for knowledge.

This book was a part of her mission to educate young women about the law that would rule their lives as wives, mothers, workers and such.

She wanted to grant more rights to married and separated women so they could control their own property, and act as legal guardians to minors.

[5] Her time in the MLCW as well as her interest in the law and women's inferior status inspired her to write Traité de Droit usuel in 1902.

Fédération Nationale Saint-Jean-Baptiste was Gérin-Lajoie's attempt at creating an alliance of women's groups, after gaining inspiration and experience with the NCWC.

In addition to its legal work, the Federation nationale also championed social causes such as providing milk for children and mothers, fighting alcoholism and illness, raising awareness of infant mortality, and various other issues that affected women's lives.

[5] In 1908, after Lacoste Gérin-Lajoie's pressure on Archbishop Paul Bruchési, she helped found l'École Enseignement Supérieur pour les Jeunes Filles.

[4] In 1911, her daughter, who is also known as Marie Gérin-Lajoie, graduated from the college which made her the first French Canadian woman to earn a Bachelor of Arts in Québec.

[7][8] In 1992, Quebec City established the Parc Marie-Gérin-Lajoie, straddling the border of the Neufchâtel Est and Lebourgneuf neighbourhoods of the arrondissement (borough) of Les Rivières.

[9] In 1995, Quebec City named a street in her honour, Rue Marie Gérin Lajoie, in the Cap-Rouge neighbourhood of the Sainte-Foy–Sillery–Cap-Rouge borough.