Marie de Gournay 1565 – 1645

Marie le Jars de Gournay was a French writer, editor, and philosopher, the adopted daughter and literary executor of Michel de Montaigne. After Montaigne's death she edited his Essays and wrote a major preface defending his work, while pursuing an independent career as a polemicist, translator, and theorist of language. Her treatises The Equality of Men and Women and The Ladies' Grievance argued for women's intellectual and social equality at a time when such claims were rarely advanced. She was one of the most learned women of her age and lived independently in Paris into her eighties.