Jeanne Vercheval-Vervoort (born March 16, 1939) is a Belgian social activist and feminist. She advocates for

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...

workers' rights Labor rights or workers' rights are both legal rights and human rights relating to labor relations between workers and employers. These rights are codified in national and international labor and employment law. In general, ...

, and

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

Biography

Jeanne Vercheval was born in

Charleroi Charleroi (, , ; ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It is the largest city in both Hainaut and Wallonia. The city is situated in the valley of the Sambre, in the south-west of Belgium, not ...

on March 16, 1939. She was active within communist and pacifist organizations before committing to the

new feminism New feminism is a form of feminism that emphasizes the integral complementarity of women and men, rather than the superiority of men over women or women over men, and advocates for respecting persons from conception to natural death. New femini ...

. She co-founded the Marie Mineur, which supports strikes by women workers demanding better working conditions, campaigns for the decriminalization of

abortion Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...

and participates with Marie Denis and Suzanne Van Rokeghem in the drafting of the Little Red Book of Women. Towards the end of the 1970s, she cooperated with the women's magazine Voyelles (1979-1982) which combined informative articles and lighter sections. In 2006, Jeanne Vercheval was the author, with Jacqueline Aubenas and Suzanne Van Rokeghem, of Des Femmes dans l'Histoire, in Belgium since 1830.

References

Belgian women's rights activists People from Charleroi Belgian abortion-rights activists 1939 births Belgian women activists Workers' rights activists Living people {{Belgium-activist-stub