Gender equality is a basic right and a common value in the European Union.
TheTreaty of Rome (1957) (art. 119), sets equality in wages between men and women.
TheTreaty of Amsterdam (1997) sets equality of gender as one of the basic rights,
The Chart of the basic rights of the European Union (2000) sets gender equality in every field.
Here are a few women politicians. They represent a minority. They were pioneers and they had to prove that they could succeed as well as any other man.Thanks to this presentation we want to pay a tribute to those "first" women who helped to put women on equal footing with men.
Unfortunately, politics seems to be men's affair and there is still too much sexism in this field...
- French Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy
- President of the Regional Council of Poitou-Charentes
- Minister of the Environment and Way of Life (1992-1993)
British prime Minister
from 1979 to 1990
French Prime Minister,
from 1991 to 1992
- French WW2 Resistant,
-Minister of Health ( she made access to contraception easier and had the abortion law voted in 1975);
- Minister of State,
- Minister of Social Affairs and the city,
- the first European Parliament President from 1979 to 1982,
- State Minister,
-the sixth womanwho entered the "Academie Française" in 2008; On her sword we can read her Auschwitz number: "78651" and the European Union motto: "United in Diversity"
- Member of the Constitutional Council of France (1998),
- And many other high responsibilities
THE WALL OF FAME of women in politics
By Pauline S. , Emily & Eva
Ségolène Royal
Margaret Thatcher
Edith Cresson
Simone Veil
She was the first French woman who ran for presidential election in 1974.
Arlette Laguiller
These Engliswomen fought to get the right to vote.
Les suffragettes
She was born on the 29 of May 1830 in Vroncourt-la-Côte and she died on the 9th January of 1905 in Marseilles. She was an anarchist activist and a great feminist. She was the first woman to have hoisted the black flag, today’s symbol of anarchy.
Louise Michel
click on the picture
Women President in Europe:
research done by Kim
Written by Kim
Marie Louise Coleiro Preca : Malta since April 4th 2014
Dalia Grybauskaite : Lithuania July 12th 2009
Ewa Kopacz : Poland, from 2014 to 2015
Angela Merkel : Chancelor, Germany, since 2005
Laimdota Straujuma : Latvia, since 2014
Helle Thorning-Schmidt : Denmark since 2011
Atifete Jahjaga : Kosovo, since 2014
Kolinda Grabar Kitavoric : Croatia, since February 18th 2015
Mary Robinson
Irish President from 1990 to 1997 and UNO's United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, from 1997 to 2002
Out of 28 European Union member states there are 13 countries that have never had a woman who has been elected President or Prime Minister:
Austria, Belgium, Cyprus; Spain, Estonia, Italy, Luxemburg, The Nederlands, Czech Repub.lic; Romania, Slovaquia, Sweden.
What is it like in the UK?
In the UK, out of 33 ministers in David Cameron's Government there were only 8 women . There is no parity !
Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo
Portuguese Prime Minister from
1979 to 1980
Women Ministers in the UK
Melina Mercouri
Greek singer and actress who later became Minister for the Arts from 1981 to 1989 then from 1993 to 1994
Federica Montseny Mañé
First Spanish woman to become a minister. She was an anarchist.
Health Minister from 1936 to 1937
She murdered Jean-Paul Marat in his bath - 13 july 1793 -after the French Revolution (1789) because he killed many innocent people.
She wrote a letter to explain why she wanted to kill him.
She was beheaded 3 days later.
Charlotte Corday - 27 July 1768 - 17 july 1793 (24 yearsold)
Olympe de Gouges
Olympe de Gouges is considered as a pioneer in activism in favour of the women's rights during the 18th century,
She was beheaded in Paris in 1793,
She is the author of the « Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne » or « Declaration of women's and citizen's rights »,
She also acted in favour of slavery abolition and of the Blacks' rights,
She is often represented as the emblem of the mov ements in favour of women's rights,
