Herminie Cadolle was born in 1842 into a modest working-class family. Married at 18, she moved to Paris where she was employed as a vest and corset maker in a clothing workshop.
Herminie joined the Union of Women for the Defense of Paris and Care of the Wounded, one of the very first feminist and workers' associations founded during the Commune. The time is no longer for sewing. The new government of the Third Republic, already humiliated by defeat, moved to Versailles. This is the last straw for the Parisians, who refuse to capitulate.