European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 30, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Psge 16 the stars and stripes april French women have made Small gains under the presidency of Francois a photo women avoiding a confrontation of the sexes by Nancy Kenney associated press feminism has failed to capture the popu Lar imagination in even among women feminism is just a lot of froth and foam that has served Only to ridicule its what makes american women so Alice Saunier a former government minister for said in an interview on the French women feel bet Ter about photographs of briefcase toting women dashing through Manhattan in business suits and track shoes make Parisienne one who might fit the category of dashing business woman is Francine who brought the Waterman pen from the Brink of bankruptcy in but she denies doing it with any hard nosed business i hate she i succeeded because i was women Are blessed with dominance in the left Side of the which controls men Are dominated by the right lobe there More logical and Pratti that analysis is not unusual for French women who underline their feminine qualities and distance them selves from the rhetoric of women they rarely have been segregated socially by and their Domi Nance within the Home is but the effects of the 1804 Napoleonic code giving them the Legal status of minors have not been easily French women were denied the right to vote or hold office until contraception was not widely prac tired until the not a single Large French City has a woman abortion was legalized in but it was six years before the Law was fully enforced because of doctors French women Are in the but their unemployment rate hovers around 2 per cent higher than and they remain clustered in traditional careers like retail sales and secretarial the historically male professions which French women have managed to penetrate so percent of Frances judges Are now female and one of three medi Cal diplomas is awarded to a woman have been terribly devalued in recent said lawyer Nicole the feminist movement that does exist is plagued by internal and the government of president Francois Mitterrand has provided most of the impetus for change since it came to Power four years Mitterrand elevated the women rights administration to a full fledged ministry and increased its Bud get he also appointed a record six women to Cabine level posts and instituted other such As extending government medical coverage to financing Job training for women and ordering Large businesses to submit data on promotions and but a French distaste for confrontation Between the sexes appears to have sabotaged some of the when women rights minister Yvette Roudy pro posed a Bill to ban sexist advertising in 1983 indignantly flashing a nude photo of Singer Grace Jones Baring her Teeth in a Cage she became a focus of Public newspaper attacks were severe and the socialist administration has not mentioned the Bill if you Tell a Young French woman Shes a sex Shell say to thank said Francoise Confounder of the news Magazine that one thing that will never be tossed a 1983 equal pay la gave unions the Power to file sex discrimination suits on behalf of women but to Date no suits have been according to the ministry of women filing lawsuits is not a priority for said Chantal an official with the confederation Generale Des a Union representing women shy away from them you in France a phrase like International women Day Doest go Over Well it sounds like International horses she French women do not like to complain because Gener ally they count themselves Lucky in contrast to women said Georgina minister of social of Laws spurred by Frances sagging birth rate allow women to Bear children without losing their they enjoy four month paid maternity leaves and the possibility of unpaid parental leave of up to two with stipends for Large families and an internationally praised daycare system for this is a Good time to be a woman in said who has four women Are recognized both As mothers and people with but the women who land top jobs tend to see them selves As there never will be Many women in positions like mine because Middle class women can meet and marry someone who earns enough for said Anne Duthil the first graduate of Frances selective state graduate engineering Dut Hillel draws up the budget for state scientific Simone Frances bes known woman consistently ranks first or second nationally in political popularity but she has just announced she is no longer a contender for High a moderate had always been realistic about her chances of becoming Premier or presi you know what the French attitude toward women in politics is she told american reporters last i doubt it could she served As president of the multinational euro Pean parliament from 1979 to but is Best known for her Battle to legalize abortion As health minister under president Valery Giscard the Bill won approval Only after a bitter parliamentary fight in which an opponent reduced an Auschwitz to tears by asking her if she wanted to Send children to the the political Battle is horrible for women in said who oversaw women rights under Giscard from the moment a woman enters Shes the victim of every possible insult and she Points to Edith now minister of foreign Trade and Industrial angry farm ers pelted the elegant Parisienne with tomatoes and sludge when she visited a troubled Region to explain her policies As agriculture minister in Cresson already had been dubbed the woman who likes a fight for braving sexual innuendos and insults in her 1975 bid for a National Assembly she lost then but won eight years american feminists say French women never were joiners because they Lack the social clubs and civic groups that evolved into women Power bases in the United states and writer Giroud has another theory on Why feminism has failed to penetrate French French women never believed they had the least bit of so they never had the impression they were fooled about them Treyve won Little by Little through the policies of now that gives you a different French men and women understand each