Maria Vérone

Maria Vérone was a French feminist and suffragist. A free-thinker, she was the president of the Ligue Française pour le Droit des Femmes or LFDF, from 1919 to 1938.

Life

Vérone was born on June 20, 1874, in Paris, France. She served as secretary at the International Congress of Freethinkers when she was 15 years old. She initially supported herself as a teacher, but was dismissed for her political opinions and unionizing activities.
On December 7, 1903, she plead before the War Council, defending two reservists prosecuted for insubordination and, on December 31, became the first woman to plead before the appeals court in Paris, Marguerite Dilhan having first plead in the appeals court of Toulouse in 1903.
Vérone became a reporter for the French feminist newspaper La Fronde, which was published by Marguerite Durand. Her journalism on legal and judicial matters led to her interest in becoming a lawyer. In 1907 Vérone, a single mother of two, was admitted to the French bar.
Vérone served as president of Ligue Française pour le Droit des Femmes for 20 years.
Vérone died on May 24, 1938, in Paris.