photographist

“Before being able to read, write or think, we love, we enjoy and we suffer in our relationships with others. This relationship with others is how I constructed myself, right from childhood. I was left with the idea that happiness and love are the natural human condition – even if it has to be constructed. The intention of every community is not to be in suffering. With fundamental optimism for the future, I have always fought for a better humanity, always castigating all forms of barbarism. I suffered from being wrongly accused at school for something I didn't do and this developed in me a feeling of revolt against injustice which has stayed with me all my life. I felt a natural empathy with those I call the damned of the world – women, poor people, colonised people, etc. It has guided my fight against injustice and violence and the choice of my research at CNRS for 35 years.

My first research concerned Algerian workers in France. I went to live in Montreuil, where Algerians were living in squalid furnished hotels. Appointed by the CNRS, I went to remote rural areas of Algeria to better understand their movements. In 1956 I wrote a book in which I described their situation, similar to the fate of French workers in the 19th century. Revolted about laws which discriminated women – including the Napoleonic Code – I started to carry out research on the destiny of women and published a "Que sais-je ?" book on feminism in 1979. Disturbed by the consequences of military-industrial alliances, I have campaigned throughout my entire life to reconcile feminism and anti-militarism. In "Surarmement, pouvoir, démocratie", I developed the way in which the patriarchal system uses the notions of national security and national defence, and the production and sale of weapons, to oppress people, in particular women.”

Andrée Michel,
Sociologist (ex Director of research at the CNRS)

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