Laure Gaudreault | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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Laure Gaudreault

Laure Gaudreault, teacher, unionist, journalist (b at La Malbaie, Qué 25 Oct 1889; d at Clermont, Qué 19 Jan 1975). Gaudreault attended the École normale Laval and then taught in Québec village grade schools.

Gaudreault, Laure

Laure Gaudreault, teacher, unionist, journalist (b at La Malbaie, Qué 25 Oct 1889; d at Clermont, Qué 19 Jan 1975). Gaudreault attended the École normale Laval and then taught in Québec village grade schools. She wrote for various papers, analysing the position of women and, from 1930 on, tried to awaken her readers to the harsh working conditions of female rural school teachers.

In 1936 she did the groundwork for the Association catholique des institutrices rurales and, in 1937, the Fédération catholique des institutrices rurales. She then organized female rural teachers to win improvements in salaries and pension programs; published La Petite Feuille and became a union organizer; was part of the 1946 fusion of various teachers' unions into the Corporation générale des instituteurs et des institutrices catholiques du Québec, the precursor of today's Centrale de l'enseignement du Québec. As vice-president of the CIC from 1946-65, she participated in the major union battles of Québec teachers.