What if the next President of the Republic were a woman? Sixty years after women gained the right to vote in France, the supposition is no longer a utopia. It has already become a reality for some nations.
Thus, in 1994, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga came into power in Sri Lanka, and was re-elected in 1999. In 1997 and again in 2004, voters in the Republic of Ireland chose to be governed by Mary Patricia McAleese. Vaira Vike-Freiberga was elected head of the Republic of Latvia in 1999 and then again in 2003. In the Philippines, the President has been Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo since 2001. And while still in the minority, this movement is gradually spreading.
Other countries have just recently shown the way. On November 22, 2005, Angela Merkel became the first female Chancellor of Germany. The following day, on November 23, it was in Africa that Ellen Johnson Sirleaf won the presidential elections in Liberia with 59.4% of the vote. In Finland, Tarja Halonen, first elected in 2000, has just been re-elected. Finally, on January 15, socialist Michelle Bachelet won the election in Chile. Again, the fact that she is a woman, also non-conformist and a single mother, was a first!
This is an encouragement for our French female politicians, almost to their own surprise designated “presidentiables”! This includes M.A.M., Michèle Alliot-Marie, Minister of Defense and already number 3 in the government, but also Socialist and president of the Poitou-Charentes region, Ségolène Royal. A newcomer almost disruptive to her own party, if not to her own husband. Thus, the idea of a female president of the Republic does not always appeal to the political establishment. For us, it’s rather an encouragement, because if fear exists, it’s because the “threat” is real. Whether in 2007 or in 2012, it’s certain, women must now be seriously considered.
This is also the scenario of one of the upcoming dramas on France 2 titled “État de grâce”. But would a female President really be different from a man? To attempt to answer this question, we imagined a rather special survey that turned out to be quite interesting. We questioned several women from our region, of all ages and from all backgrounds, asking them the same questions:
-Would you like a woman to be elected President of the Republic, and who would you like to see in that position?
-What are the three first measures you would ask your government to implement?
Here are their answers…
