Julie-Victoire Daubié

Julie-Victoire Daubié (26 March 1824 – 26 August 1874) was a French journalist. She was the first woman to have graduated from a French university when she obtained a licentiate degree in Lyon in 1871.

Josephine Butler translated a part of Julie-Victoire Daubié's books into English.

Early life
Daubié was born on 26 March 1824 in Bains-les-Bains in the Vosges. Her father died when she was less than two years old, and she and her seven siblings moved with their mother to Fontenoy, staying with the family of their father. She studied Latin, Greek, German, history, and geography with help from her brother. In 1844, she received a teacher's certificate of ability and studied zoology at the Museum of Natural History in Paris. At the museum, she was taught by renowned specialist Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. Despite her education and lack of laws explicitly barring women from entering academia, Daubié was rejected from numerous French universities. Despite the rejections, she continued taking classes while working as a governess.

Education and career
Daubié entered an essay competition in 1859 held by the Imperial Academy of Science and Fine Letters of Lyon. She wrote a nearly-300-page work titled "The Poor Woman in the 19th Century. Female Conditions and Resources," which detailed professional and academic exclusion for women, wage inequality, and other travails. The essay took first prize, and Daubié was given admittance.

In 1861, she became the first woman to present herself at the baccalaureate exams. She was 37-years-old when she became the first female baccalaureate in France, in August 1861.

After her graduation, Daubié continued to write about the conditions faced by women as an activist and a scholar. She moved to a large house she purchased in Fontenoy and set up an embroidery shop, which she entrusted to her niece. She also settled on the Champs-Élysées in Paris and became a recognized economic journalist. In 1871, she became an arts graduate in Lyon, becoming the first female licenciate in letters. She remained an activist for women's rights and later a journalist.

Death
Daubié died on 25 August 1874, age 50, in Lorraine at the Fontenoy-le-Château, due to tuberculosis.

Legacy
In March 2018, Google featured her in their "Google Doodles".