Weinstein case thrusts French gender minister to the fore
HARVEY Weinstein has catapulted Marlene Schiappa to centrestage in France.
The French state secretary for gender equality – who is not even a full minister – was among four members of the government picked to speak when President Emmanuel Macron’s political movement held its first congress last week.
The decision to turn the spotlight on Schiappa, 35, was intended to show Macron’s commitment to women’s issues.
Schiappa, a mother of two girls, hit some of Macron’s targets when he was putting together his government after being elected in May: having half the Cabinet be women and naming some non-politicians.
But Schiappa has a tough act to follow. France has had strong women in the past fighting for gender equality: Simone Veil, a minister of justice and health in the 1960s and 80s, won adoptive rights for women and legalised abortion. Yvette Roudy, women’s rights minister in Francois Mitterrand’s first government from 1981 to 1986, pushed through laws about workplace equality and extended state healthcare to abortions.
For her part, Schiappa, in spite of a brazen style and a colloquial way of expressing herself, rarely made headlines in the early months of Macron’s reign.
When she did, it was for stumbles, such as when she had to backtrack on a promise to soon allow medically assisted reproduction for all women and not just for married couples, or when some pointed out positions she took years before joining the government, like opposing France’s laws banning Muslim headscarves in schools.
All that changed when the Weinstein affair broke early last month, pushing gender issues to the front pages. France’s equivalent to the United States’ #MeToo campaign is #Balancetonporc or “denounce your pig”.
Even before that, Schiappa had been pushing for a law to impose on-the-spot fines for catcalling women in public, lengthen the statute of limitation on sex crimes and introduce a presumption of sexual non-consent between children below 15 and adults.
Separately, the government is about to start a media campaign about equality at the workplace and has floated the idea of “naming and shaming” companies that don’t pay equally for equal work, Schiappa said.
Critics say she and Macron haven’t done enough.
“She is an activist and blogger who does not have the political standing or, according to some, feminist credentials commensurate with the role she has been given,” said Rainbow Murray, a professor of politics at Queen Mary in London.
“Macron’s actions to date indicate that he pays lip service to women but isn’t a genuine feminist at heart. I’m sure that he’ll make noise about sexual violence being unacceptable, ending the culture of silence, etc. But how much will actually change as a result is a moot point.” — Bloomberg