Of
Nils Minkmar
Before Minister Élisabeth Borne was appointed prime minister by Emmanuel Macron, only one woman had made it to the head of government in France: the hapless Édith Cresson, who held office for a full eleven months in 1991 under Mitterrand. And apart from this episode, one has to go back to the beginning of the 17th century to unearth another woman at the head of France, Maria de’ Medici – her son, the king, was too young to rule France. Powerful symbols remained: Joan of Arc as a national saint, Marianne as a symbol of the republic and, in modern times, the two Simones, Veil and de Beauvoir, who stand for feminist France. In this respect, France is dramatically underdeveloped: one can still see women struggling to speak or being corrected immediately after speaking in engaged discussion groups.