Parity, but not equality. The distribution of ministerial posts within the Attal government, the first without women in senior positions since 2017, increases French President Emmanuel Macron's burdens, already exacerbated by his alleged support for actor Gérard Depardieu.
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Seven men, seven women: on paper the balance is good. But the first list published in the Official Journal already reveals the imbalance. All men are full ministers, while three women are “delegated to the Prime Minister”.
In detail, the balance tilts even further. Economics and finance? Bruno Le Maire. Inner? Gerald Darmanin. Armies? Sebastien Lecornu. Justice? Eric Dupond Moretti. Diplomacy? Stéphane Séjourné. Men everywhere.
A situation that has not existed since 2016 and the government of Bernard Cazeneuve, the last five-year term of François Hollande. Since then, President Macron had been careful to reserve at least one state portfolio for the fairer sex: Florence Parly in defense and Nicole Belloubet in justice during his first term, then Catherine Colonna in foreign affairs and especially Elisabeth Borne in Matignon after her re-election. Choice.
On the contrary, Gabriel Attal's team is “a very masculine government (where) women are taking steps backwards,” laments the socialist senator Laurence Rossignol. The women's cause, a “so-called great national cause” with which “the President of the Republic has absolutely nothing to do,” believes the far-right MP Sébastien Chenu.
A recurring criticism of the head of state, who rode the Metoo wave when he came to power, but was constantly accused of not having provided the necessary resources. He recently sparked an outcry among defenders of the feminist cause when he spoke of a “manhunt” against the actor Gérard Depardieu, who was facing several charges of rape and sexual assault.
His own wife, Brigitte Macron, even insisted on remembering “the importance of women’s voices” following the president’s controversial remarks.
“Contempt for women”
“Contempt for women is now a catchphrase for Emmanuel Macron,” criticizes the head of the ecologists Marine Tondelier, for whom the president “put together the government with Gérard Depardieu.”
However, women have not completely disappeared from the cast. The recruit Catherine Vautrin is taking over a large social ministry with new contours, from work to health to solidarity. “The place of women is everywhere,” said the woman concerned when she handed over power and promised to make it “Ariadne’s common thread” in her actions.
The new Minister of Culture Rachida Dati, known for her independence, also emphasized the freedom to “think”, “speak”, “create” and “disseminate”, which she wants to defend “especially for women”. And For the first time in the Fifth Republic, relations with Parliament were entrusted to a woman: Marie Lebec.
Strong symbols that do not erase the “self-evident” that Catherine Colonna recalled on Friday as she left the Quai d'Orsay: “The equality of women and men must also be expressed at the heart of the sovereign domain.” Message to her successor Stéphane Séjourné, “a man” whom she does not “doubt” but who will act “with the same conviction.”
But feminists are concerned that women are being entrusted with “gendered offices,” namely “health, social affairs, education,” which “create a huge gap” between issues and make it “difficult to lead the battles head-on,” they said President of the Women's Foundation, Anne-Cécile Mailfert.
Provided the managing couple gives them the option. However, Amélie Oudéa-Castera, who has just been promoted to the national education system, remains in sports and already seems to be under the supervision of Gabriel Attal, who “takes the school's cause with him”.