Olympe Demarez vignette
Olympe Démarez was a teacher in Dunkirk when she decided to resume her studies and enrol at the Lille Faculty of Law. The first woman to obtain a law degree from the Faculty in 1913, she was sworn in before the Douai Court of Appeal on 2 February 1914, becoming the first female lawyer in the Nord département. To finance her studies, she worked as a secretary to the lawyer Charles Valentin (1881-1939). Initially his companion, she married him in 1939. Although Olympe Démarez did not speak before the court much, she worked together with him and invested a great deal in his political career. Charles Valentin was elected General Councillor in 1913 and 1934, Mayor of Dunkirk in 1925 and Member of Parliament in 1936. After his death, she became head of the war damage department at Dunkirk town hall, then SFIO councillor from 1945 to 1953.
Notes written by Nathalie Barré-Lemaire.