Léon Richer  Léon-Pierre Richer (1824 – 25 June 1911) was a French free-thinker, freemason, journalist and feminist who worked closely with Maria Deraismes during the early years of the feminist movement in Paris. He edited "Le Droit des femmes" ("Women's Rights"), a feminist journal that appeared from 1869 to 1891. He was founder of the "Ligue française pour le droit des femmes" (French League for Women's Rights), one of the main feminist organizations in France in the 1880s. However, Richer was concerned that women were not sufficiently educated in republican principles, and that giving them the vote could cause a clericalist and monarchist reaction and the loss of democracy. Léon Richer was born in 1824 in the Orne department. He spent eleven years working for the Orléans Railroads as a notary's clerk, then in the mid-1860s became a journalist. He wrote a column for the "Petit Parisien". Richer published several studies of religious philosophy in the "Alliance religieuse universelle" and then the "Libre Conscience", reviews directed by Henri Carle. From 1866–68 the "Opinion nationale" published his "Lettres d'un libre-penseur à un curé de village" ("Letters from a Free-Thinker to a Village Priest"), which were widely discussed and republished in two volumes. He then published a series of pamphlets along the same line of thought: "Le Tocsin", "Alerte!" and "les Propos d'un mécréant". The ultramontanists responded with attacks on the author. Richer was called a "tranquil and serious man." According to Simone de Beauvoir he was "the true founder of feminism in France." In 1868 political meetings were authorized. Richer arranged and directed a series of Grand-Orient conferences in the rue Cadet in Paris, where he spoke several times. In February 1866 he encouraged Maria Deraismes (1828–94) to participate in these "philosophical conferences". This launched her career as a feminist. Deraismes had inherited a fortune, and decided to avoid marriage so as to retain her freedom. Richer founded "Le Droit des femmes" ("Women's Rights"), a journal that appeared from 1869 to 1891.