TESTIMONIALS. “Boys club”, sovereign ministries entrusted to men… Four ministers speak out about the sexism that persists in politics

While women are called to strike for Women’s Rights Day on March 8, several ministers spoke to franceinfo about their vision of sexism in power.

Under Nicolas Sarkozy, in the mid-2000s, they were nicknamed the “Sarko girls”. Women ministers in a government are also confronted with ordinary sexism. Several of them testified on franceinfo about this phenomenon which will still continue in 2024. Nicole Belloubet, today Minister of National Education, also remembers the 1990s. “Everyone remembers the Jupettes, the female ministers of Alain Juppé, with the excessive derision that was attached to their roles and the time they spent within their ministries. I believe that it is something that we no longer say today”, she confides.

Sexism erased in words but not in facts according to Marlène Schiappa, minister until a year ago. “There are forms of ‘boys club’”she testifies. “During Emmanuel Macron’s first five-year term, I learned by chance that male ministers were meeting to play football.”

“There were two or three of us women at the time who said: ‘We want to play football with you’. And like in a playground they told us: ‘No, it’s only for boys’. “

Marlène Schiappa, former minister

at franceinfo

To counter this “boys club”, Marlène Schiappa had the habit of bringing together female ministers among themselves. Catherine Vautrin, the current Minister of Labor, Health and Solidarity, took over. On February 21, the new minister organized a breakfast with the other women in the government before the Council of Ministers. “It was interesting that between us we could have a little moment of exchange. Let’s tell each other, a moment of girls. It feels good from time to time”, she justifies.

Sexism still prevalent

A “girls’” moment before a Council of Ministers where none of them occupies a regal post. Which Nicole Belloubet does not consider so serious. “During the last ministries, that of Edouard Philippe, there were two women in the sovereign ministries. There things are a little different but I don’t know if we should draw a definitive conclusion.” Social ministries are all entrusted to women. The family, for example, for Aurore Bergé, current minister responsible for equality between women and men. “I never felt either legitimate because I was a woman, nor illegitimate because I was a woman. Afterwards, the question is how we trace our own path, because we have struggles that we want to wear”, she thinks.

Among these struggles, parenthood. The question of motherhood distinguishes these four women from their male colleagues. “We combine the life of a woman, a mother and a minister”confides Catherine Vautrin, while Nicole Belloubet concedes that the“we no longer have the same availability of time to devote ourselves to those close to us”.

“What I felt was that I felt like whatever decision I made I was going to be told it wasn’t the right one.”

Aurore Bergé, Minister of Equality between Women and Men

at franceinfo

These attacks are even doubly true for these women ministers and mothers. “I once happened to arrive late at the National Assembly, exactly six minutes because one of my daughters was ill. I was really vilified and we spent 27 minutes debating in the “hemicycle because I was six minutes late. We are not concepts, we are people”, she says. Although each of these ministers believes that they have received enough support in their motherhood, they all testify to similar events. Proof of still ambient sexism.