Françoise David was born in Montreal on January 13, 1948.
Her mother made her aware of various social problems, sending her to help families living in poverty as a teenager. She became a counselor and then director of the Sacré-Cœur summer camp, which welcomes children from disadvantaged backgrounds for the summer vacations. In 1969, she spent six months in Rwanda, where she was a teacher and responsible for extracurricular activities in a secondary school.
With a bachelor’s degree in social work from the Université de Montréal (1972), she worked as a community organizer and then as an information officer at the Centre des services sociaux du Montréal métropolitain from 1972 to 1986. She became president of her union and head of the Women’s Committee of the Fédération de la santé et des services sociaux (CSN) between 1977 and 1984. Françoise David was a member of the Marxist-Leninist group “En lutte!” from 1976 to 1982. She later took a critical look at this commitment, without abandoning her values of justice and equality.
In 1987, she became coordinator of the Regroupement des Centres de Femmes du Québec, where she obtained the first three-year funding plans. In 1994, she became president of the Fédération des femmes du Québec, a position she held until 2001. With the women’s movement, Françoise David organized the Bread and Roses March against poverty in 1995, followed by the World March of Women against Poverty and Violence in 2000.
After 14 years with the women’s movement, Françoise David did an internship in Mali with the SUCO organization, and then joined the Au bas de l’échelle team to work on a reform of the Act respecting labour standards.
In 2002, she founded D’abord solidaires, a citizens’ movement aimed at popularizing the platforms of Quebec’s various political parties and informing citizens about the dangers of the rise of the right.
In 2004, with a team of activists, she founded Option citoyenne, a political movement that merged with the Union des forces progressistes in 2006 to become Québec solidaire, a party for which she was co-spokesperson from 2006 to 2017.
Françoise David was a candidate in Gouin in the 2007 and 2008 elections. In 2012, she was elected MNA for Gouin. She was re-elected in 2014 with 51% of the vote. She retired from politics in January 2017.
Ms. David remains a committed citizen. Between 2018 and 2023, she was vice-president of the Démocratie Nouvelle movement, which is fighting for electoral reform in Quebec. Françoise David also participates in broadcasts, supports various causes, writes and speaks at conferences and in interviews.
She is a knight of the Ordre national du Québec and in 2018 received an Honorary Doctorate from the Université de Montréal.
She has one son and one granddaughter. Her husband, François Larose, is a retired history professor.
Forty years of social and political commitment have not altered her ideals: to make Quebec a country of projects, the common good and equality, a green territory with a social and solidarity economy, democratic, inclusive, where people live and work in French.
