Born: 10 October 1924, France
Died: 31 March 2017
Country most active: France
Also known as: Évelyne Annie Henriette Pasteur, Évelyne Hammel
During World War II, Evelyne Sullerot and her family relocated to Compiègne, where she and her younger siblings helped the Resistance. Her father ran a psychiatric clinic that hid Jews and other individuals persecuted by the Nazis and collaborationist Vichy government. She was arrested and judged by the Vichy police force for “antinational propaganda and hostile remarks about the Head of the State” (Pétain) and joined the OCMJ (Military and Civilian Organization of Young People).
After the war, Sulerot co-founded Maternité Heureuse, an organisation to promote birth control, in 1955 with Marie-Andrée Weill-Halle. She developed what is believed to be the world’s the first women’s studies course in 1967 at Paris Nanterre University. She also authored mange books on feminism and was awarded Commandeur de la Légion d’honneur and Grand-Officier de l’ordre national du Mérite for her activism.