Jeanne Lapointe: a “great feminist” of the Quiet Revolution and “forgotten intellectual” returns to Laval University

Writers Anne Hébert, Gabrielle Roy and Marie-Claire Blais considered Jeanne Lapointe their mentor; Laval University finally pays tribute to him by giving his name to a pavilion on its campus.

“She was a great feminist and a little-known architect of the Quiet Revolution,” comments Claudia Raby, who devotes her doctoral thesis at Laval University to the contribution of Jeanne Lapointe (1915-2006).

The one that journalist Frédérik Dompierre-Beaulieu described as a “forgotten intellectual” brought together several political and academic figures in Sainte-Foy on March 8 as part of the announcement of the new designation of the educational sciences pavilion , which will bear the name of Jeanne Lapointe.

Described as a woman “with a remarkable career” by the rector of Laval University, Sophie D’Amours, Jeanne Lapointe was one of the first lay people to obtain a graduate degree at her establishment.

Born in Chicoutimi in 1915, M^me Lapointe became the first woman to be appointed to a position as professor of literature at Laval University in 1940.

The photos often show her as the only woman among men in a jacket or cassock. In addition to being anticlerical at a time when the Church ruled over academia, she was passionate about social justice and valued interdisciplinarity long before this term was fashionable…

deserved honor

Best known as a literary critic – notably in Free city with Pierre Elliott Trudeau and Gérard Pelletier – this teacher participated in the Parent reform which completely redesigned the education system in Quebec. The pavilion that will bear her name – the second on campus to honor a woman – has 17 floors occupied by teaching and research in educational sciences.

It is a deserved honor, according to M^me Raby, who has been studying the work of Jeanne Lapointe for several years as part of her research and who has certainly contributed to bringing her out of the shadows.

Women in public space

“Her critical sense was remarkable for several writers, particularly for Anne Hébert, whose texts she reread and edited them severely,” mentions M^me Raby.

His role was not limited to literary works. Just after writing the 1500 pages of the Parent Report, she agreed to sit on the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada (the Bird Commission) in 1967. The report tabled in 1970 caused a stir.

Present at the inauguration of the Lapointe pavilion, Martine Biron, Minister of International Relations and La Francophonie and Minister responsible for the Status of Women in the Government of Quebec, mentioned that M^me Lapointe was saddened by the fact that our history books too rarely highlighted women.

“I don’t find them in the street names either. There is a lot of catching up to do,” she said.