A Madame President………..?
Bonjour à Tous,
I spotted fleetingly, a newspaper headline where Hilary Clinton was telling the USA they were ready for a female President. Or was she asking if they were ready? No, probably ‘telling’, that Madame Clinton is no shrinking violet.
Naturellement, it begs the question, is France ready for a female President? A question that is most appropriate as voting in the French Presidential elections commences in April. (the candidates have just been elected - no two year campaigns like one country that can and should remain nameless - I mean seriously, the front cover of Time this week is all about the ‘race’ being on. Cat-a-strophe!) The Socialist Party candidate, Mme Segolene Royal is one of the leading presidential hopefuls, (a name like that must be a marketers dream)and along with the centre/right candidate Nicholas Sarkozy is favoured to proceed into the second round of voting.
Mme Royal is a comparitive political novice, not wet behind the ears, but certainly lacking in experience. Her critics (i.e. political opponents) have drawn attention to a couple of recent diplomatic ‘faux pas’ situations claiming she says what she thinks her audience wants to hear. (doesn’t every politician?) The Socialists know however that they have a candidate who is colourful, projects a stimulating personality and who is very electronic media friendly. Think Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher, Bob Hawke and David Lange. The P.S. (of course in France it is the Partie Socialiste) think they are on to a winner, a candidate who will appeal directly to the ‘masses’ and let’s not allow the detail of policies and plans get in the road of entertaining rhetoric.
But are the ‘masses’ going to be receptive? In the USA there is probably little debate that the culture exists to readily accept a female President. But in France, where cultures and traditions remain steadfastly in place (particularly in the so named Provinces) it could well be a higher hurdle. Consider:
¤ as a general observation, society in France is still heavily masculine orientated.
¤ in their language, masculine always takes grammatical priority over the feminine form
¤ women were given the right to vote in 1944. (New Zealand the first country in 1893)
¤ in 2000, laws were introduced to ensure an equal number of women candidates in local elections
¤ when applying for our residents’ permits I had to write a letter to say ‘I will be responsible for my wife’. (came as big news to me)
The French to a man/woman are very adept at masking their true feelings about a particular issue and I therefore suspect all the polls that are being rolled out will be reflecting differently from what the eventual outcome may be. So I suspect Sogelene Royal is going to have her work cut out. However with both herself and Sarkozy (very dynamic and upfront) there will be no lack of entertainment, drama and passion in the weeks ahead. And it will be all over in 3 months!!
A Bientot,
Bruce.
February 1st, 2007 at 4:17 am
interesting. i think france would be more receptive to female leaders than the US. after all, the USA has no history of women in high powered positions, never having experienced a queen or a joan of arc. there is always oprah and martha stewart.
February 8th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
Good point kjmackay, but look what happened to your french examples of powerful women. Joan of Arc: burnt at the stake. Their most famous queen, Marie Anoinette: the guillotine. Doesn’t bode well for the potential Madame la Presidente!