Éditions des Femmes

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Éditions des Femmes is a French feminist publishing house created in 1972 by a women’s collective called Psychanalyse et politique, led by Antoinette Fouque and funded by Sylvina Boissonnas. It grew from the second‑wave feminist “women in print” movement, which built publishing networks run by and for women. The company, a 21‑member cooperative, had its first manager, Yvonne Boissarie, with Marie-Claude Grumbach taking over in 1974. In 1979 the shares were reorganized to Fouque, Boissonnas and Grumbach, a change noted as breaking the original equality of the partnership.

Éditions des Femmes published French and international women writers and works about women’s issues and human rights, as well as writings from the past. Its collections cover human sciences (psychoanalysis, sociology, philosophy, history), fiction, biography, letters, poetry, theater, and memoirs, exploring themes like the feminine condition, feminism, lesbianism, and women’s history. Early bestsellers included Hélène Cixous’s works ( eight novels published between 1974 and 1979) and Elena Gianini Belotti’s On the Side of Little Girls. Victoria Thérame’s Hosto-Blues was another early hit.

In 1993 the publisher released Catherine Deneuve, Selected Portraits, a photo volume supporting AIDS relief. In 2013, Le Dictionnaire universel des créatrices appeared, edited by Béatrice Didier, Antoinette Fouque and Mireille Calle-Gruber. The press also published several periodicals, including Women’s Daily (1974–1976), Women in Motion (monthly 1977–1979, then weekly for 101 issues up to 1982).

In 1980 Éditions des Femmes launched a line of audio books, aiming to bring reading to people who could not read easily or at all. Many famous actors and writers contributed, such as Isabelle Adjani, Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Nathalie Baye, Gérard Depardieu, Yves Bonnefoy and Jacques Derrida, among others.

The first bookstore, Women, opened in Paris in 1974 at 68 rue des Saints-Pères, later moving to rue de Seine in 1981 with an art gallery. It closed in 1999 and reopened in rue Jacob with a dedicated “women’s space.” A women’s bookstore also opened in Marseille in 1976 and in Lyon in 1977, though these later closed.