Claire Démar

(1799 - 1833)

A member of the utopian-socialist society of Saint-Simonian, Claire Démar committed suicide in her early thirties in 1833. This pamphlet was discovered on her desk, an affixed note stating that it should be “read to the Saint-Simonian family of Paris.” It was published in 1834. Quoting from the little-known text in his Arcades Project, Walter Benjamin observed that among the writings from the time about “the future of woman,” Démar’s manifesto was “unique in its power and passion.”