Jacqueline Manicom
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Jacqueline Manicom | |
|---|---|
 Manicom in 1961 | |
| Born | 1935 Guadeloupe |
| Died | 1976 (aged 40–41) |
| Occupation(s) | Writer, midwife |
Jacqueline Manicom (1935 – 1976) was a Guadeloupean writer, professor, broadcaster, feminist, and midwife, author of the novels Mon examen de blanc (1972) and La graine : journal d'une sage-femme (1974).
Manicom was born in Guadeloupe, the eldest of twenty children born to parents of South Asian origin.[1] She trained as a midwife, and studied law and philosophy in Paris.
Career
Manicom worked at a public hospital in Paris as a young woman. She also worked in radio and television, and taught philosophy courses. In the late 1960s she worked with Simone de Beauvoir on women's rights in France, was a founding member of Choisir la Cause des Femmes (CHOISIR), and especially focused her activism on the legalization of abortion.[2] She and her husband founded a family planning clinic in Guadeloupe.[3][4]
Manicom wrote two autobiographical novels in French,[5] Mon examen de blanc (1972)[6] and La graine : journal d'une sage-femme (1974),[7] both stories of Caribbean immigrant women in medical settings,[8] both with themes of race, class, gender, and sexuality in the context of French colonialism and French Caribbean independence.[9][10][11][12]
