Henriette’s Dream

My name is Henriette Trépanier. I’m a native of Trois-Rivières and I always wanted to be a journalist. When I was a teenager, I would eat breakfast while flipping through the pages of two local newspapers: Le Nouvelliste and Le Bien Public. I especially enjoyed the women’s page in Le Bien Public.

Called “Le coin des dames” (Women’s Corner), the page was written by Georgette Gilbert under the pen name Fleurette de Givre. She quickly became a source of inspiration for me. Reading the newspaper was a morning ritual. And in my free time, I entertained myself by writing short articles.

Black and white photograph of a woman sitting at the kitchen table, reading Le Nouvelliste. A cup, two glasses, two spoons, a knife and a swan-shaped bowl with fruit are on the table in front of her.

Keen reader studying the morning news in Le Nouvelliste

At the age of 18, I took the next step toward achieving my dream. I landed a job interview at Le Nouvelliste. On a rainy day in the spring of 1928, my father dropped me off at the Lampron Building on Sainte-Marguerite Street in Trois-Rivières. That’s where the newspaper’s offices were located. I remember wearing a dress my mother had sewed specially for the occasion, as well as my sister Madeleine’s high-heeled shoes.

I brought along a portfolio of my writing. It included articles on topics like the advantages of tuberculosis dispensaries. I was most proud of an opinion piece I had written on women’s suffrage at the provincial level.

We’d gained the right to vote in federal elections in 1918, but the Taschereau government in Quebec City was continuing to resist feminist demands. Little did I realize at the time that women wouldn’t gain the right to vote in Quebec until 1940!

Colour photograph showing bronze statues of Marie Lacoste-Gérin-Lajoie, Idola St-Jean, Thérèse Forget-Casgrain and Marie-Claire Kirkland. Behind them, a lamppost and the stone facade of the Quebec Parliament Building are visible.

Monument honouring women in politics

When I arrived in the newsroom, I met the newspaper’s president, Joseph-Herman Fortier. He had personally founded Le Nouvelliste eight years earlier. Although impressed by my writing, he told me that journalism—and especially news reporting—was an almost entirely male domain.

I was disappointed, but I still accepted the position he offered me as a secretary. Not only was I a fast typist, but I was in it for the long haul. I still intended to show what I could do and eventually make my way as a journalist…

Black and white photograph of a woman transcribing a conversation between Managing Director Émile Jean and Local Advertising Manager Jos Lefebvre. Seated at a desk, Jean points to a map while Lefebvre, standing to the right of the desk, looks on.

Woman at a typewriter recording a discussion between Émile Jean (Managing Director, sitting behind a desk) and Jos Lefebvre (Local Advertising Manager)

Journalism at the Turn of the 20th Century