Founded in 1635 by Cardinal de Richelieu, theAcadémie française remained a male institution for several centuries. In 1980, thewriter Marguerite Yourcenar became the first woman to be elected to the Institut de France. Since then, only 11 women have become academicians, but several have passed away in recent years, bringing the number down, most notably Hélène Carrère d'Encausse, who was the Académie's perpetual secretary and left us on August 5, 2023.
To date, only six women remain: Florence Delay, Danièle Sallenave, Dominique Bona, Barbara Cassin, Chantal Thomas and Sylviane Agacinski, all of whom joined the Académie in the early 2000s. Will the seat vacated by Hélène Carrère d'Encausse once again be filled by a woman as her successor, bringing the number of female academics back to seven? Among the female members of the Académie, Jacqueline de Romilly, Simone Veil and Assia Djebar made history before their deaths.
It was thanks to pressure from Jean d'Ormesson and public opinion that the first woman academician was elected, despite the disagreement of other elected men. In the 1980s and until recently, the institution refused to feminize the names of professions, deeming the feminine gender "discriminatory". These "immortals" were required to wear the same green habit, bicorne, cape and sword as men at solemn sessions, even though the outfit was not designed for women. Marguerite Yourcenar refused to wear it, as did Assia Djebar, but the other women academicians did at their reception ceremonies.
