Claire Lacombe (4 August 1765 – 2 May 1826) was a French actress and militant during the French Revolution. In addition to being known as an effective street fighter during the early phases of the Revolution, Lacombe was a founding member of the Society of Revolutionary Republican Women, a political club of largely working class women. The Society militated for participatory democracy and for policies that would meet the basic needs of urban workers, who suffered from high food prices and food shortages. It was later to be crushed by the Jacobins, along with other working class movements such as the san-culottes and the enragés.

Lacombe was born in the provincial town of Pamiers in southwestern France. She became an actress at a young age and appeared in theatrical productions 'somewhere in southern France, probably Marseille'. She arrived in Paris in 1792. The actress, in her mid-twenties, was 'self-assured, self-assertive, and self-dramatizing, all useful qualities for making one's mark on the revolutionary scene.'

Lacombe first attracted attention in Revolutionary politics in late July 1792, when she gave a well-received speech to the National Constituent Assembly. In her speech, she pledged to fight for her country 'with the courage of a Roman and with the hatred of tyrants' and promised to help with the extermination of 'Neros and Caligulas'. She also asked to be recruited in the army. At the time, revolutionary France was facing major military threats from the royal houses of Europe. The speech was given the ‘honors of the session’ (a distinction) and was printed by the Assembly.

Indeed, Lacombe made good on her commitment to fight. She and other women were active in the street combat that was part and parcel of the revolutionary process. In particular, during the insurrection of 10 August 1792, Lacombe fought with the rebels during the storming of the Tuileries Palace, which was protected by the mercenary Swiss Guard. Hundreds of Swiss guardsmen and 400 revolutionaries were killed in the battle. Along with Théroigne de Mericourt and Reine Audi, Lacombe rallied the revolutionary forces, who were under fire. She was shot through the arm but kept on fighting, earning herself the lifelong sobriquet, "Heroine of August Tenth". For her bravery, she was awarded a civic crown (couronne civique) by the victorious fédérés.

After acquiring a certain level of recognition due both to her public speaking and her abilities in insurrectionary combat, Lacombe strengthened her position as a political actor. She was a frequent attendee at meetings of the Cordeliers Club, through which she became involved with the most radical elements of the Revolution.

In February, 1793, Lacombe and another female revolutionary, Pauline Léon, founded ‘the most famous of women’s clubs,’ the Society of Revolutionary Republican Women. Composed chiefly of working-class women, the Society was aligned with the most militant revolutionaries, the sans-culottes and enragés. They "demanded not just the execution of royalty and the rooting out of the aristocracy, but a social and economic program, ... to restrict ... the speculator, the stock-jobber, the hoarder, and to enact a system of fixed, 'just' prices, controlled markets and supplies." In this sense, the Revolutionary Republicans' programme was, in the first instance, economic and not overtly feminist. However, they did demand that the universal male suffrage created in the Constitution of 1793 (but not implemented) be extended to women. The Society also functioned as a fighting force, and employed violent tactics to intimidate people that they considered to be anti-revolutionaries.

Almost from the outset, the French Revolution, including its most radical elements, encountered difficulties incorporating women's rights into their broader principles of human rights. This debate took place within a societal context in which women of all classes were almost entirely without political or civil rights. For example, women had no right to vote; men had total legal authority over their wives; and female children received a non-existent or inferior education relative to males. When the women from the bourgeoisie asked to be included in the emerging framework of human rights, the reigning institutions (including the Jacobian political movement) were initially quite receptive. Indeed, many bourgeois demands were enacted into law, such as the promulgation in 1792 of a divorce decree; setting the age of legal majority at 21 for both sexes; and establishing the right of women to testify in certain civil suits. But when working class women started to militate by asking for 'disruptive' measures to increase the supply of bread in cities and to prevent price fixing and hoarding, this support evaporated.

Despite the deeply entrenched chauvinism of the time, there were a few men among the revolutionaries who supported the fight for women's rights. One of these was Théophile Leclerc, with whom Lacombe lived for a while, until he left her to marry Pauline Léon.