On 8 March, it was International Women’s Rights Day – not “Women’s Day”.

On this occasion, we inaugurated the Knowledge and Culture Centre under a new name, that of a woman: the Julie-Victoire Daubié Centre, named after Julie-Victoire Daubié, France’s first female baccalauréat graduate.

A ceremony was held in the presence of Madame the COCAC, and was led by students from the CVL (Student Council).

Students from the CVL, Year 9 (5eA), Year 11 (Seconde A) and Year 13 (Terminale A) punctuated the ceremony with powerful speeches. They reminded us of the importance of odonymy – the naming of public spaces – for the representation of women in the public sphere. They also explained why saying “Women’s Day” does not make sense: “woman” as a single, fixed model does not exist; there are as many ways of being a woman as there are women.

The students also reminded us who Julie-Victoire Daubié was, and how she had to fight for the right to sit the baccalauréat examination. Did you know that at the time the word bachelière (female baccalauréat holder) did not even exist? In doing so, the students highlighted the importance and the power of words in the fight for equality. The 8th of March is therefore a day to celebrate rights that have been won, while also reminding us of the need to defend them and to continue the struggle to secure new ones.

Finally, the ceremony concluded with an appearance by Simone de Beauvoir, portrayed by a Year 13 student, highlighting the extent to which education is a vehicle for emancipation, because, as she famously wrote: “One is not born, but rather becomes a woman.”