From a modest background, Madeleine Martinache was a schoolteacher when she began her studies at the Faculty of Law in 1920.
Graduating in 1923, she began her career as a lawyer in 1926. Recognised by her peers, she became the first woman to be appointed secretary of the Conférence des Avocats.
Committed to promoting women’s rights, she joined the Nord Federation of the French Union for Women’s Suffrage. She founded the Women’s Professional Union (1930), the Lille Soroptimist Club (1938) and the Lille chapter of the Association of French University Graduates.
Concerned about the plight of the destitute, she was a member of the Legal Aid Office for several years.
A Resistance fighter, she belonged to the Pat O’Leary and Gloria networks. Arrested in August 1942, she was deported in 1944. After returning disabled as a result of the war, she became involved in politics by joining the RPF, becoming deputy mayor of Lille in 1947, then city councillor in 1955 and member of parliament from 1958 to 1962.