Anne-Marcelle Kahn

Anne-Marcelle Kahn, née Schrameck (4 June 1896 – 28 June 1965) was the first French woman engineer to graduate from l'École nationale supérieure des mines de Saint-Étienne (the National School of Mines of Saint-Étienne), in 1919. She later married Louis Kahn, who became the first Jewish French Admiral, and crossed the Pyrenees alone with her two young children to reach safety during the Second World War. Early life Anne-Marcelle Schrameck was born on 4 June 1896 in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. She was the daughter of Marguerite Odile Bernheim (1872–1945) and Abraham Schrameck, who was a French Minister of the Interior in the Third Republic. The family were Jewish. Education In 1912, Schrameck entered a lyceum. In 1919, Anne-Marcelle Schrameck became the first woman engineering graduate from a major school. Studying at l'École nationale supérieure des mines de Saint-Étienne between 1917 and 1919, she earned the diplôme d’ingénieur civil des mines (diploma of civil engineer of mines). Following her admission, there was significant debate over the suitability of a woman taking the course as pupils had to undertake an internship as a miner, considered inappropriate for a woman. The school's regulations were subsequently amended to prohibit the admission of women, a situation which lasted for 50 years (until 1968), and during that time no other woman was admitted as an engineering student in a French mining school.