Women's studies centre : essay on Simone Veil (2008)

Résumé du document

As a French citizen, I have chosen to devote my essay to one of the most beloved political figures in France: Simone Veil. Not only has she been a very brave woman but she also did a lot for her country and she is of interest to me for a lot of reasons. She is a French lawyer and a politician and served the country's health ministry. In 2005, in the course of a cultural project organized by my High School, I had the great opportunity to meet her after one of her meetings that was held in favor of the European Constitution. We spent time with her and asked her a lot of questions about her life, her political experience and, mostly, about her involvement in this campaign. She was also an attorney and worked in the Ministry of Justice as well. We will probe into her life and political career in this document.

Extraits

[...] In 1959, as the substitute attached to the Ministry of the Justice, Veil strove to reform the conditions of detention in prisons. She was particularly interested in women's situations, marginalised in France, in the prison population (1,000 women for 30,000 men), and whom nobody cared for. For these women, Veil requested the equality of treatment in prisons, which is far from being the case, the criminal woman suffering from more humiliations from society. Furthermore, French prisons were rundown and she struggled to improve the sanitary conditions. She introduced reading and psychological care. [...]

[...] Her list obtained, on the 17th of June 1984, more than 43% of the votes. After spending many years with the European Parliament as a deputy, Veil accepted an invitation to return to a French government position in 1993, when she became the first female Minister of State for Social Affairs, Health and Towns during Édouard Balladur's Premiership, holding the post until May 1995. She said, with this post, she could do “charity” in France (Lamontagne). In 1996, she became a newly selected member of the International Commission for the Balkans, directed by Léo Tindemans, which is charged with finding ways to reconstruct a region devastated by war. [...]

[...] It's also one of the senses of her commitment: lot of things that life gave me, I had them because I was a woman, it was necessary to name one somewhere, I was known, they turned to me . And I'm not going to complain. But I think for the women who follow, it's difficult. Attacks are violent and often unfair. Altogether I feel indebted towards all women” (Dugrand). However, she affirmed be a woman in politics, it is to assume one as such, and not to seek to suppress these characteristics which are feminist, even certain frivolousness sometimes, and then the importance given to the family” (Jeannesson). [...]

[...] In 1969, she entered politics joining the cabinet of René Pleven, Minister for Justice. But, her political career really started in 1974 when Valéry Giscard d'Estaing became President in 1974 and, having decided to feminise his Government, nominated her Minister of Health in Jacques Chirac's Premiership and after in Raymond Barre's one, holding the post until July 1979. She thus became the first female Minister of the Fifth Republic. As the Minister of Health, she liberalized the access to contraception making pills free on the 4th of December 1974 and made the Parliament adopt a law about the legalization of the voluntary termination of pregnancy (law Veil), which was applied on the 17th of January 1975. [...]

[...] Therefore, her action was also linked to the family. By becoming the director of the Civil Affairs in 1964, Veil redefined the notion of parental authority and commenced a reform of adoption which affirms that adoption has to be made for a child's good, even if we have to strip the unworthy parents of their rights. She wanted to provide illegitimate children with the same rights afforded to children born into a traditional household. In 1967, France allowed the contraceptive pill to be placed on the market but it was on the 4th of December 1974 that Veil made access to contraception easier making the pill free due to repayments by Social Security. [...]