Simone Rollin

Rollin was born Simone Norbert in Montendre in 1910; her mother was a seamstress, while her father worked as a mechanic in a Renault factory.[1] She began work after leaving primary school.[1] Working as a garment handler, she became involved in trade unions at the age of 17.[1] When she married in 1930, she established the Family Workers' Movement and served as its president until shortly before the Liberation of France.[1] During the Nazi occupation she participated in the French resistance, meeting women who would later join her in the Popular Republican Movement (MRP).[1] At the founding congress of the MRP in 1944, she was chosen as its vice president.[1]

She was subsequently an MRP candidate in Seine department in the October 1945 National Assembly elections, and was elected to parliament,[1] becoming one of the first group of women in the National Assembly.[2] Although she lost her seat in the June 1946 elections, she was elected to the Council of the Republic in December 1946, serving in the upper house until November 1948.[1]

A mother of six, Rollin died in La Grande-Motte in 1991.[1]