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Video duration: 5 min
Women’s rights: two centenarians recount their first vote
An order issued by the provisional government of General de Gaulle on April 21, 1944 gave women the right to vote. A century later, two centenarians recount their first vote, during the municipal elections of April 1945.
(France 2)
An order issued by the provisional government of General de Gaulle on April 21, 1944 gave women the right to vote. A century later, two centenarians recount their first vote, during the municipal elections of April 1945.
On April 29, 1945, like many others, Simone Darré, now 104 years old, was able to vote for the first time in the municipal elections. “There were many of us in the room to vote, it was a day that mattered to us”, she remembers. 12 million voters were called to the polls. Women who were previously deprived of this right. Irène Destrac has still not digested this injustice, even at the age of 100. “A stupid man voted, and an intelligent woman did not vote”she says, with a smile on her lips.
A look at the current situation
This victory was achieved thanks to the order taken by the provisional government of General de Gaulle on April 21, 1944. Simone Darré remembers that a year later, during the municipal elections, her husband found that he was “useless” that they be open to women, because they were going to vote like their husbands. “I told him no”, she says. In fact, Simone Darré voted on the left, and her husband on the right. Today, Irène Destrac finds that women “have difficulty finding their place” in politics, and that “important positions are still held by men”. “Women are still below”she summarizes.
