'''La Fronde''' (The Sling) was a
French feminist newspaper first published in
Paris on
December 9,
1897 by activist
Marguerite Durand (1864-1936). Durand, a well known actress and journalist, used her high-profile image to attract many notable Parisian women to contribute articles to her daily newspaper, which was run and written entirely by women. To send a message of equality the paper indicated the current date according to a variety of calendars such as the
French Revolutionary calendar, the
Jewish calendar, and the
Gregorian.
The newspaper gave extensive coverage to a broad range of feminist issues and profiled such things as Jeanne Chauvin's demand that the French government grant her the right to practise law and for
Madeleine Pelletier who argued for the right to become a psychiatrist.
Circulation for ''La Fronde'' briefly reached a peak of 50,000 but in September of 1903, financial problems forced the paper to cut back to a monthly publication, and to close altogether in March of 1905.