Nelly Roussel

Nelly Roussel (January 5, 1878 – December 18, 1922) was a free thinker, anarchist, and feminist. Born in France, Roussel became the first feminist spokeswoman for birth control in Europe. She was a Neo-Malthusian. Members of the Neo-Malthusian movement, led by Paul Robin, believed that birth control held the answer to preventing natural disaster, poverty, and suffering by artificially regulating the population. She delivered her messages on birth control, motherhood, women's place in the capitalist system, and women's rights within the home through public lectures, journalism, and theatre. She had support, but political resistance to her message revealed conservative perceptions about gender among the French. She was a political activist. In the years following World War I, Roussel died from tuberculosis. She wanted to give women control over their own bodies and sexuality. Her radical position on women’s rights wasn't recognized for another seventy-five years. Roussel was a first-wave feminist. She spoke out about private and public issues.^[1]

References

1. ^ Accampo, Elinor. Blessed Motherhood, Bitter Fruit: Nelly Roussel and the Politics of Female Pain in Third Republic France. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006.

External links

• Works by or about Nelly Roussel in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Persondata
Name	Roussel, Nelly
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	January 5, 1878
Place of birth
Date of death	December 18, 1922
Place of death