Major Marie Courtemanche

Written by Jacob Sullivan Edited by Zach Batson

Major Marie Courtemanche is a military officer serving in the The People's Republic of France . She was the first female officer in the French military, and served for 22 years before her promotion during the Grand Revolution of 1938. Courtemanche was born in 1883, and grew up in a small village in Provence with her mother and father. Her father was a veteran of the Italian wars, and the young Marie idolized his years of service. She would devote the rest of her life to trying to follow in her father's footsteps. In 1901, at the age of 18, Courtemanche approached a recruiting office in an attempt to enlist. At this time women in France had not even been granted the right to vote. She was of course denied, but this moment marked a shift in Marie’s life that led to a lifetime of advocacy for women.

Marie Courtemanche played a major role in the women’s suffrage movement and protests across France in the early 1900s. She campaigned across the French countryside from 1901 to 1905, and gave several speeches at the National Conference for Women’s Rights in the Spring of 1906. These early efforts did not amount to much initially, but Courtemanche continued to campaign and organize for women’s rights in France. Politics had been gradually shifting left leading up to France’s loss to the Aetherace to Japan in 1915. There was an election that year, and the conservative Bonapartian party lost many seats to liberals and socialists. After the election, The French Union for Woman’s Suffrage sent four women, including Courtemanche, to speak to the House and Senate on the issue of Women’s rights. The efforts of the suffragists proved successful by 1916 with several successive laws for women’s equality including allowing them to join the military. With the passing of this law, Marie was finally able to enlist at the age of 33. Although she was quite old by the start of her service, many of her skills as a political organizer helped her in her career as a soldier in a time of relative peace.

Although on paper women were given the right to serve, her role when she enlisted was shifted to that of a secretary. Courtemanche continued to advocate for and litigate the French military demanding reforms for Women during her service. By 1938, after 22 years in the military, she was promoted to the rank of Major. Although her rank was quite low for someone with as many years in the service, she played an instrumental role in the Grand Revolution of 1938, aiding in the military dismantling of the aristocracy.