A life dedicated to women
Léonie Couture, C.M., C.Q., has devoted the past 40 years of her life to advocating for the well-being and rights of women. After serving, notably, as an assistant director of nursing at the Sacré-Coeur Hospital in Hull, she left the institutional setting for the community-based sector in 1980.
Her involvement with the Women’s Centre at the University of Ottawa sparked a profound reflection on feminism that greatly influenced her path in life. From 1981 to 1994, after moving to Montreal, she worked first for the Mouvement contre le viol et l’inceste (Movement against rape and incest), then in the field of literacy, and, finally, at the Women’s Health Centre.
Founder of La rue des Femmes
In 1994, realizing that the services offered to homeless women were not suited to their need for healing, and driven by her feminist vision of every woman’s right to dignity, justice, security and equality, Léonie Couture established La rue des Femmes in Montreal. Her priority was to create conditions that would help women find healing from their deep relational wounds and to promote the recognition of relational health.
For Léonie Couture, relational health is a crucial component of overall health, to the same degree as physical and mental well-being.