This work looks back at the resolution proposed by Jaurès to the Chamber of deputies on the 26th of November 1896 in a political context marked by the "new spirit" of conciliation with the Catholics, where the Méline government was in no hurry to apply the school laws of the 1880s. Jaurès advocated speeding up the secularisation of staff in girls' state primary schools, where nuns were still very much in evidence. He also refused to allow the 1897 budget to worsen the situation of lay female teachers by changing their promotion system and, consequently, their salary, which was already very humble and lower than that of male teachers.