Gourd, Emilie (1879–1946)
Gourd, Emilie (1879–1946)
Swiss feminist. Born in Switzerland in 1879; died in 1946.
Emilie Gourd was born in 1879 in Switzerland. She apparently embraced the women's movement in her mid-30s and remained committed to it for the rest of her life. Through the paper Le movement féministe, which she founded and edited until her death, she championed suffrage, education, and legal rights for women. Defying the Swiss authorities, she also organized plebiscites asking for support for women's suffrage during cantonal (Switzerland is politically divided into cantons) and national elections. Gourd served as president of the Swiss Woman's Association from 1914 to 1928 and became secretary of the International Alliance of Women in 1923. She also edited a yearbook of Swiss women and wrote a biography of Susan B. Anthony (1920).