Madame Marie-Madeline Fourcade was a force in the French Resistance. She led three thousand agents across occupied territories and free zones while working directly with British intelligence. She single handedly recruited valuable agents such as Leon Faye and Antione Hugon. Surprisingly, In the French Liberation Museum there I found only a small passage about her efforts. The display introduced her as the wife of Édouard Méric whom she had left prior to working in the Alliance. They also mention her directing the organization only after her co-founder Navarre had been arrested, but they started the network together and divided roles internally. She was never second to his leading; she was the one who lead and instructed the agents.
Madame Fourcade was not only one ignored in this fashion. Overall, this Museum didn’t show the overall effect of women during the resistance. About a quarter of the resistance movement were women. This exhibit showed a wall that contained about 1040 pictures of people who participated in aspects of the Resistance and only six of those were women: that is .577%. This alone shows how little emphasis the exhibition put on women’s participation during this time. To me this shows how the French place emphasis on the male participation over the overall female effects.