VOTES FOR WOMEN

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VOTES FOR WOMEN
CAMILLE LESSARD BISSONNETTE
FROM 1910, UNDER PEN NAME
LIANE, PROMOTED SUFFRAGE IN
COLUMNS FOR “LE MESSAGER”
NEWSPAPER LOCATED HERE.
WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION 2021

Suffragist Camille Lessard Bissonnette once worked at the French language newspaper Le Messager, located in Lewiston, Maine. Born in the province of Quebec, Canada, around 1883, Camille Lessard, later known as Camille Lessard Bissonnette, immigrated to Maine as a young woman. She was an ardent advocate for women’s suffrage and an accomplished writer. Under her pen name “Liane”, she promoted women’s right to vote in the columns she’d pen for the Le Messager. In a February 4, 1910 edition of Le Messager, Camille wrote on the subject of suffrage:

You say, sirs, that it is the woman who lights up your home. You compare her to a ray of sunshine. You exclaim that women must not be dragged into the mud of politics. But sirs, when a ray of sunshine falls on the mud does it dirty itself, or does it dry up and purify the mud?

Camille was influential in spreading support of women’s suffrage among those in Maine who shared her French-Canadian heritage. At the time, her stance was not a popular one, especially when voiced by a young immigrant woman. In her later life, she moved to California where she lived until her death in 1970. It was through the efforts of courageous men and women like Camille Lessard Bissonnette, unafraid to speak up, who ensured that future generations of women would have the right to vote.

Camille Lessard Bissonnette. Courtesy of Franco-American Women's Institute.