海角大神

From Charlemagne to Charles de Gaulle, the formidable men whose minds and military exploits have shaped La France are well chronicled and commemorated.

But a question kept troubling Heidi Evans, a young Brit who moved to Paris in 2014 to be a tour guide, as she herded tourists from the Pantheon to the banks of the Seine: 鈥淲hat about the women?鈥�

鈥淲e talked about a lot of great men 鈥� Napoleon, and Louis the XIV, and other kings of France mostly called Louis,鈥� she says. 鈥淎nd we talked a little bit about 鈥榖ad women,鈥� like Marie Antoinette. I didn鈥檛 think it was fair, this 鈥榞reat man鈥� 鈥榖ad woman鈥� imbalance.鈥�

So she sought to correct it by creating a 鈥淲omen of Paris鈥� tour. Running now for a little more than a year, it takes visitors 鈥� not exclusively, but predominantly, women 鈥� on a journey through feminist texts, scientific experiments, and rebellious disregard for social mores. The women who had to fight for recognition in their day, Ms. Evans points out, are still less recognized than their male counterparts.

On this day, we are on a newer tour which the English-lit major crafted exclusively around female writers in the chic Saint-Germain-des-Pr茅s neighborhood, the heart of French intellectual life in the 19th and 20th centuries.

"Out of the home and onto the page"

We meet outside Les Deux Magots, the iconic caf茅 that served as a second home for the Parisian intellectual elite in the middle of the 20th century, including Simone de Beauvoir, most famous for her feminist treatise 鈥淭he Second Sex.鈥�

But it is the less familiar addresses that are the most illuminating.

First stop is the Editions des Femmes, a publishing house for women authors opened in 1973 by Antoinette Fouque, co-founder of the French Women鈥檚 Liberation Movement. She said her goal was to get women 鈥渙ut of the home and onto the page,鈥� Evans tells our group of three.

Ms. Fouque also founded France鈥檚 first collection of audiobooks, well before the podcast, so that busy housewives could still experience great literature.

And we pass the house of Colette, the French novelist best known for 鈥淕igi,鈥澛爓ho was forced to write her first four books in her husband鈥檚 name.

鈥淭hank God we were born when we were,鈥� says Tracy Cooper, one of my companions on the tour, who is on an annual man-free trip to Paris with her old college friend Caryn Jerrett. Ms. Jerrett, though, thinks her friend is over-optimistic. 鈥淭hink of the enormity of it, that no woman has ever been as famous as a man,鈥� she points out.

As we walk along the cobbled streets of the Left Bank quartier, Evans doesn鈥檛 just share biographical notes but the theories expounded by the 鈥淲omen of Paris.鈥� We talk about the issues facing women that are as current as they are historical, such as abortion and domestic violence.

Curiously, the topic of disgraced Hollywood executive Harvey Weinstein doesn鈥檛 come up until I raise it. For now, Evans says, the question has not sparked much conversation, but she suspects that might change with her 鈥淲omen on the Stage鈥澛爐our, set to start next month. The idea that female stars must have slept their way to the top existed in ancient times, she explains, and persists to the present day.

8 out of 726: could do better...

When we pass the domed French Institute that houses the Acad茅mie Fran莽aise the notoriously conservative body tasked with safeguarding the French language, Evans asks us to guess how many of the 726 members elected since 1635 have been female.

Both British women shoot low, at three and five. I go with a more optimistic 30. Wrong. Eight. 鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty much an old man鈥檚 club,鈥� says Evans. 鈥淟ike many places,鈥� adds Ms. Cooper.

Outside the former residence of Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, better known by her pseudonym George Sand, Evans tells us about the novelist who cross-dressed to access a man鈥檚 world. 鈥淪he wanted to live like a man, and today she is so loved and respected for that, even more than for her writing,鈥澛爏he says.

But old stereotypes endure. Evans recalls that when she was telling her grandfather about this tour, he referred to the 19th century novelist as 鈥淐hopin鈥檚 mistress.鈥澛犅�

鈥淲omen of Paris,鈥� Evans explains, aims to shift thinking about gender roles that have so often confined women鈥檚 identity to that of 鈥渨ife of鈥� or 鈥渕istress of.鈥�

鈥淚 wanted to look at what women have done,鈥� she says, 鈥渉ow they lived and helped shape the city of Paris.鈥�