Â鶹APP

20 Of The Most Famous French Women

The famous quote that states the future is female has been recently modified to the present is female. This means that women are on the frontline of writing history in different industries they’re in. France has been the birthplace and starting point for many of these women. From groundbreaking scientists and celebrated actresses to fashion icons and feminist thinkers, these women have made significant contributions to art, science, literature, and society as a whole. 

In this article, we highlight 20 of the most famous French women who have shaped history and continue to inspire generations with their talent and work in various sectors. Their accomplishments span a wide range of domains, reaffirming the profound impact of French women on global culture and progress. These women have also cemented their places in history and are the hallmark of inspiration for future generations.

1. Marie Curie

Marie was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win a Nobel Prize twice, and the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two scientific fields. 

Her husband, Pierre Curie, was a co-winner of her first Nobel Prize, making them the first-ever married couple to win the Nobel Prize and launching the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes. She was, in 1906, the first woman to become a professor at the University of Â鶹APP.

2. Coco Chanel

, , via Wikimedia Commons

Coco Chanel was a French fashion designer and businesswoman. The founder and namesake of the Chanel brand, she was credited in the post–World War I era with popularizing a sporty, casual chic as the feminine standard of style. 

She is the only fashion designer listed on Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. A prolific fashion creator, Chanel extended her influence beyond couture clothing, realizing her aesthetic design in jewelry, handbags, and fragrance.  Read more fun facts about Coco Chanel. 

3. Simone de Beauvoir

Simone was a French existentialist philosopher, writer, social theorist, and feminist activist. She had a significant influence on both feminist existentialism and feminist theory.

Beauvoir wrote novels, essays, biographies, autobiographies, and monographs on philosophy, politics, and social issues. She was best known for her trailblazing work in feminist philosophy. 

 4. Édith Piaf

, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Piaf was a French singer. Noted as France’s national chanteuse, she was one of the country’s most widely known-international stars. Piaf has become one of the most celebrated performers of the 20th century. 

Piaf’s music was often autobiographical, and she specialized in chanson réaliste and torch ballads about love, loss and sorrow. Her most widely known songs include La Vie en rose (1946), Non, je ne regrette rien (1960), Hymne à l’amour (1949), Milord (1959), La Foule (1957), L’Accordéoniste (1940), and Padam, padam (1951).

5. Brigitte Bardot

Bardot is a French former actress, singer and model. Famous for portraying sexually emancipated characters with hedonistic lifestyles, she was one of the best-known sex symbols of the 1950s and 1960s. Although she withdrew from the entertainment industry in 1973, she remains a major popular culture icon.

Bardot retired from the entertainment industry in 1973. She had acted in 47 films, performed in several musicals, and recorded more than 60 songs. She was awarded the Legion of Honour in 1985. After retiring, she became an animal rights activist and created the Fondation Brigitte Bardot. She is known for her strong personality, outspokenness, and speeches on animal defence.

6. Catherine Deneuve

, , via Wikimedia Commons

Deneuve is a French actress as well as an occasional singer, model, and producer, considered one of the greatest European actresses. She gained recognition for her portrayal of icy, aloof, and mysterious beauties for various directors, including Jacques Demy, Luis Buñuel, François Truffaut, and Roman Polanski.

In 1985, she succeeded Mireille Mathieu as the official face of Marianne, France’s national symbol of liberty. A 14-time César Award nominee, she won for her performances in Truffaut’s The Last Metro (1980), for which she also won the David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actress, and Régis Wargnier’s Indochine (1992). Click here for more remarquable facts about Catherine Deneuve. 

7. Isabelle Huppert

Huppert is a French actress. Described as one of the best actresses in the world, she is known for her portrayals of cold and disdainful characters devoid of morality. 

She is the recipient of several accolades, including two César Awards, five Lumières Awards, a BAFTA Award, three European Film Awards, two Berlin International Film Festival, three Cannes Film Festival and Venice Film Festival honors, a Golden Globe Award, and an Academy Award nomination; in 2020, The New York Times ranked her second on its list of the greatest actors of the 21st century.

8. Berthe Morisot

, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Morisot was a French painter and a member of the circle of painters in Â鶹APP who became known as the Impressionists. She was described by art critic Gustave Geffroy in 1894 as one of the three great ladies of Impressionism.

In 1864, Morisot exhibited for the first time in the highly esteemed Salon de Â鶹APP. Sponsored by the government and judged by Academicians, the Salon was the official, annual exhibition of the Académie des beaux-arts in Â鶹APP. Her work was selected for exhibition in six subsequent Salons.

9. Carla Bruni

Carla is an Italian-born French naturalized singer and fashion model. In 2008, she married Nicolas Sarkozy, then president of France. In 2009, she created the Carla Bruni-Sarkozy Foundation for philanthropic efforts.

She was a model from 1987 to 1997 before taking up a career in music. She wrote several songs for Julien Clerc that were featured on his 2000 album, Si j’étais elle. Bruni released her first album, Quelqu’un m’a dit, in 2003, which eventually spent 34 weeks in the top 10 of the French Albums Chart. Bruni won the Victoire Award for Female Artist of the Year at the 2004 Victoires de la Musique. 

10. Christine Lagarde

, , via Wikimedia Commons

Lagarde Christine is a French politician and lawyer who has served as President of the European Central Bank since 2019. She previously served as the 11th Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 2011 to 2019. 

Lagarde had also served in the Government of France, most prominently as Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry from 2007 until 2011. She is the first woman to hold each of those posts.

11. Josephine Baker

Joséphine Baker was an American-born French dancer, singer and actress. She was the first black woman to star in a major motion picture, the 1927 silent film Siren of the Tropics. Baker was celebrated by artists and intellectuals of the era, who variously dubbed her the Black Venus, the Black Pearl, the Bronze Venus, and the Creole Goddess.

During her early career, Baker was among the most celebrated performers to headline the revues of the Folies Bergère in Â鶹APP. Her performance in the revue Un vent de folie in 1927 caused a sensation in the city. Her costume, consisting of only a short skirt of artificial bananas and a beaded necklace, became an iconic image and a symbol both of the Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties.

12.  Vanessa Paradis 

, , via Wikimedia Commons

At the age of 14, Vanessa Paradis gained international success as a French singer for her single Joe le taxi in 1987. She is also a model and an actress. At 18, she received highest honor as a singer and an actress with the Prix Romy Schneider, Victoires de la Musique for Best Female Singer for her album Variations Sur le meme t’aime and the Cesar Award for Most Promising Actress. 

Vanessa has been a muse to numerous musicians and lyricists, such as Lenny Kravitz, Matthieu Chedid, The Bees and Serge Gainsbourg. Some of her famous songs include Marilyn & John and Be My Baby. As a model, she has worked and appeared on more than 300 magazine covers worldwide, including Elle, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Marie Claire, Premiere, Harper’s Bazaar, Â鶹APP Match and Madame Figaro.

13. Simone Veil

Simone was a French magistrate and politician who served as Health Minister in several governments and was President of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1982, the first woman to hold that office. 

As health minister, she is best remembered for advancing women’s rights in France, in particular for the 1975 law that legalized abortion, today known as Veil Act. From 1998 to 2007, she was a member of the Constitutional Council, France’s highest legal authority.

14. Joan of Arc

, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Joan of Arc is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronation of Charles VII of France during the Hundred Years’ War. 

Claiming to be acting under divine guidance, she became a military leader who transcended gender roles and gained recognition as a savior of France. Read more on Joan of Arc: Heroine of France. 

15. Marion Cotillard

Marion is a French actress. Known for her roles in independent films and blockbusters in both European and Hollywood productions, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, a European Film Award, a Lumières Award and two César Awards. She became a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in France in 2010 and was promoted to Officer in 2016. She has served as a spokeswoman for Greenpeace since 2001.

16. Sarah Bernhardt

, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Bernhardt was a French stage actress who starred in some of the more popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including La Dame Aux Camelias by Alexandre Dumas fils; Ruy Blas by Victor Hugo, Fédora and La Tosca by Victorien Sardou, and L’Aiglon by Edmond Rostand. 

She also played male roles, including Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Rostand called her the queen of the pose and the princess of the gesture, and Hugo praised her golden voice. She made several theatrical tours around the world, and she was one of the early prominent actresses to make sound recordings and act in motion pictures.

17. Germaine Tillion 

Tillion was a French ethnologist, best known for her work in Algeria in the 1950s on behalf of the French government. A member of the French resistance, she spent time in the Ravensbrück concentration camp.

She became one of the members of the French Resistance in the network of the Musée de l’Homme in Â鶹APP. Her missions included helping prisoners to escape and organizing intelligence for the Allied forces from 1940 to 1942.

18. Jacqueline Auriol

, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Auriol was a French aviator who set several world speed records. During World War II, she worked against the German occupation of France by helping the French Resistance.

She took up flying in 1946, got her pilot’s license in 1948 and became an accomplished stunt flier and test pilot. 

19. Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette

Colette was a French author and woman of letters. She was also a mime, actress, and journalist. Colette is best known in the English-speaking world for her 1944 novella Gigi, which was the basis for the 1958 film and the 1973 stage production of the same name. Her short story collection The Tendrils of the Vine is also famous in France.

20. Juliette Binoche 

, , via Wikimedia Commons

Binoche is a French actress and dancer. She has appeared in more than sixty feature films and has been the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Silver Bear, a Cannes Film Festival Award, a Volpi Cup and a César Award.

During the 2000s, she maintained an international career, alternating between French and English language roles in both mainstream and art-house productions. In 2010, she won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival.