THE WOMEN BEHIND EUROPE - Institut Jacques ...
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Caricature of Simone Veil by Marco, 1996 - European Voice.
BEHIND EUROPE
THE WOMEN
I
NTRODUCTION
German poster for International Women’s Day, 8 March 1914. Censored in the German Empire.
Paris, 18 April 1951. Konrad Adenauer was on an official visit to Paris, the rily to help us find out more or sometimes, let’s be honest, introduce us to
first German statesman to come to the French capital since the end of those women who, at the Commission, the Parliament or in Court, stan
World War II. He had just signed the treaty for the first European Commu- ding on the podium, in the press room or in the interpreter’s booth, have
nity. That very evening, upon returning to his hotel, he found an unusual contributed to moving forward the European project, and with it women’s
present waiting for him. A Parisian student, Simone Patrouilles, left him rights. Today, this project is particularly in the hands of powerful female
a letter together with the French War Cross medal awarded to her father leaders.
who died in World War I, as a message of hope for reconciliation between This exhibition, created and produced by Anne-Julia Manaranche and
the two nations. Adenauer was deeply moved by this and treasured this Claire David, Editor and General Secretary at the Jacques Delors Insti-
gift for the rest of his life. The personal gesture, as bold as it is eloquent, tute respectively, is partly inspired by a recent study on the role of wo-
by a young French woman is a reflection of the little-known actions of men in European construction (Editions de la Sorbonne, 2019), edited by
many women who, in their own way, have made Europe what it is today. Anne-Laure Briatte, Eliane Gubin and Françoise Thébaud. We extend our
To celebrate International Women’s Day on 8 March, this exhibition puts heartfelt thanks for their advice.
the spotlight on figures who are often much less studied than the “foun-
ding fathers” of European construction. I hope that this exhibition will be an enjoyable and inspiring experience
Without going back to the more artistic figures who travelled across and for all!
considered Europe, such as the novelist Germaine de Staël, and without
attempting to be exhaustive, this gallery of selected portraits aims prima Sébastien Maillard
Director of the Jacques Delors Institute
W OMEN AND EUROPAN PROJECTS Women who supported the project for a united Europe through words or actions in very different ways and with very different ideas for Europe
Louise Weiss, during her speech to the European Parliament, 1979.
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Front page of L’Europe Nouvelle, 1918.
OUISE WEISS, A EUROPEAN FOR PEACE
(1893 - 1983)
Originally from Alsace, shaped by war and living near a border, In 1979, Jacques Chirac asked her to be a candidate on the RPR’s
Louise Weiss build up her European persona partly through the list for the first European elections. Her nomination as an MEP
success of her six-volume work, Mémoires d’une Européenne. provided her with an opportunity to speak these words during her
She was chief editor of the magazine L’Europe Nouvelle in the in- address as the oldest EP member at the opening of the European
ter-war period. Following Hitler’s rise to power, which in her opinion Parliament’s constituting session in 1979:
made the project of entente between nations impossible, she set “[…] That this historic day should not end without kindling a new
aside the fight for Europe and dedicated herself to feminism and in light in the firmament of our civilization as it embarks upon a new
particular to obtaining the right to vote for women. era. May that flame be kindled by you, here in Strasbourg, the sym-
bolic metropolis of the reconciliation of our continent!”
Summary of the publication The Marshall Plan. A retrospective, Westview Press, 1984.
Miriam Camps © Archives Miriam Camps.
M
IRIAM CAMPS, ANGLOSAXON PRAGMATISM
(1916 - 1994)
Born in Massachusetts and an economist by training, Miriam adopting a global approach to growth in Europe and to include
Camps started her career as a diplomat in London in 1943, in the Eastern European countries in this. She quickly became aware of
office of the US Embassy which was dealing with the economic the specific nature of the British issue. She also analysed the com-
blockade on the continent and emergency aid for liberated territo- plications resulting from the use of federalist narrative which legi-
ries. Miriam Camps developed expertise in American initiatives for timises the institutions but highlights the distance with a political
European reconstruction and is in particular remembered for the and cultural vacuum. She also left her mark by championing the
quality of the official documents she wrote. In 1947, she was one use of the term “integration” rather than “unification” when spea-
of three figures tasked with drafting the articles of association of king of European construction: “Let us use the word ‘integration’
the OEEC with responsibility for the distribution of credit granted instead of ‘unification’, because unification to the Congress means
under the Marshall Plan. the United States of Europe, and the Europeans aren’t going to do
Through her experience she gained a clear vision of the specific that. ‘Integration’, nobody knows what it means.”
features of the European project: she became accustomed to
Reception for the Japanese delegation at the High Authority of the ECSC with Ursula Wenmakers,
March of European youth. Ursula Wenmakers and Jean Monnet, 1953.
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Franz Etzel, Jean Monnet, 1954.
RSULA WENMAKERS, THE STAR INTERPRETER
(1928 - 1963)
While there is little biographical data available on this German inter- According to van Hoof, Ursula Wenmakers was “unquestionably
preter who worked in the first years of the ECSC, she is emblematic the star of the team” and Jean Monnet remembered her in his Me-
of many women who worked on building the European project, in moirs as a “young woman […] as talented as she was dedicated.
particular the team of interpreters. She bore witness to all the phases of the application that Etzel
This department, in which 55% of staff were women (largest [Vice-President of the High Authority] and myself had started to
workforce in the world with 431 interpreters), became independent consider together and to problem-solving.”
as the Directorate-General for Interpretation and Conferences un- Her early death made a deep impression, and Henri Methorst –
der the initiative of Renée van Hoof, who became an interpreter an interpreter who joined the High Authority in 1952 – remembe-
at the High Authority in 1953 and the first woman to take up the red that she “literally died of exhaustion from whispering between
position of Director-General from 1982 to 1994. Jean Monnet and the German Vice-President, Mr. Etzel”.
W OMEN AND THEIR RIGHTS IN EUROPE Women who saw Europe as a means of moving forward gender equality.
Eliane Vogel-Polsky, conférence au Parlement, 7 mars 2003.
Pages of the report written by Eliane Vogel-Polsky, 1989.
E
LIANE VOGEL-POLSKY, ACTIVISM THROUGH LAW
(1926 - 2015)
Eliane Vogel-Polsky was born into a bourgeois Belgian family. A Doctor of Polsky condemned this unlawfulness and warned against the adverse
Law specialising in international and community labour law, she was in fa- effects of moving onto the second phase without ensuring compliance
vour of building a social Europe and saw article 119 of the Treaty of Rome, with this point, removing article 119 from the mandatory implementation
which calls for wage equality between men and women, as a means of process for the Common Market.
achieving this. Eliane Vogel-Polsky attempted to refer to the Court of Justice of the Euro-
Yet in 1957, this article was written predominantly for an economic purpo- pean Communities on the basis of this article. She found the opportunity
se, in an attempt to avoid wage distortions which could hinder free com- to do so in 1969 with the Defrenne case. After almost ten years of legal
petition between Member States. It became a legal requirement during the battles, the CJEC acknowledged its direct application. “That breach of
first phase of implementation of the Common Market in December 1961. Community social law was a big lesson for me. From then on I understood
However, on this date, article 119 was not applied. To avoid it delaying the that total legal and activist commitment was needed to change society’s
second phase of the Common Market, its deadline was pushed back to resistance and indifference to the question of gender equality.”
1964 without following the legal route of revising the Treaty. Eliane Vogel-
Fausta Deshormes la Valle in her office at the European Commission, 1980.
Front page of the Femmes d’Europe journal, 1980, Issue 14.
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AUSTA DESHORMES LA VALLE, A FIGHTER FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS
(1927 - 2013)
From an Italian family, Fausta Deshormes la Valle was a civil servant of women, dialogue with civil society and raise awareness of female voters
the DG X (Broadcasting, information, communications and culture) at the and candidates, particularly during the first elections of the European Par-
European Commission. liament in 1979.
In 1968, she was present in her capacity as civil servant at a conference on During her thirty years of service at the European Commission, Fausta
women’s press in member states which was attended by chief editors, all Deshormes la Valle highlighted the importance of dialogue with civil so-
male, criticised for their indifference to the issues women face. ciety for the implementation of European policies, the need for information
Supported by Jacqueline Nonon, civil servant at the DG V (Employment when building a democracy based on equal representation and the inhe-
and social affairs) and the network of feminists that she developed, she rent link between the battle for women’s rights and the battle for a united
created in 1976 the information for women’s organisations and press unit Europe. Writing about the Women of Europe journal, she said:
which published Women of Europe for almost fifteen years, a sort of offi- “Dear Friends, like life-giving blood takes oxygen everywhere, information
cial journal of women in Member States. The journal’s aim was to inform must circulate around this major body that is the European Community.”
http://assembly.coe.int
Recommandation 1229 (1994)1
Documents concerning Recommendation 1229 of the Council of Europe, 1994.
Catherine Lalumière, in conference at the Notre Europe Academy, 2016.
Egalité des droits entre les hommes et les femmes
Assemblée parlementaire
1. L'Assemblée affirme que l'égalité des droits entre les femmes et les hommes est un principe
fondamental de la démocratie et qu'elle représente un élément de la reconnaissance de la légitimité de
l'identité féminine dans la vie publique.
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2. Elle considère que l'égalité des droits entre les hommes et les femmes suppose que les deux sexes
disposent des mêmes chances de développer leurs ressources dans tous les secteurs de la vie active,
politique, familiale et culturelle.
3. Elle est consciente que, malgré l'égalité en droit, il y a encore des discriminations à l'égard des femmes
en Europe, à des degrés divers, dans des domaines tels que l'éducation, la famille, le travail ou la politique
sociale.
4. Elle rappelle la Déclaration finale de la Conférence des Nations Unies sur les droits de l'homme qui
s'est tenue à Vienne du 14 au 25 juin 1993
5. Elle souligne que les droits fondamentaux de la femme et de la fillette sont une partie inaliénable,
intégrale et indivisible des droits universels de la personne.
6. Elle est convaincue qu'une participation accrue des femmes à la vie politique à tous les niveaux,
fondée sur le principe de la démocratie paritaire, permettrait aux responsables politiques des deux sexes
d'avoir une compréhension et une vision plus complètes de tous les problèmes auxquels doit faire face la
ATHERINE LALUMIÈRE, A FEMINIST AT THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE
société démocratique moderne.
7. Elle se félicite des progrès réalisés dans les pays nordiques en matière de représentation des femmes
au sein des parlements.
8. L'Assemblée recommande au Comité des Ministres:
(1935 -)
8.1. de consacrer le principe de l'égalité des droits de la femme et de l'homme comme droit global role of the UN Secretary General, but on a European scale. In 1992,
fondamental de la personne humaine dans un protocole additionnel à la Convention de sauvegarde
des Droits de l'Homme et des Libertés fondamentales; Catherine Lalumière was born in Rennes, where she studied public law.
8.2. de lever toute ambiguïté de la notion de «droits de l'homme» et de lui substituer celle de «droits Appointed Secretary of State for European Affairs in 1984, she signed the the Committee for Equality between Women and Men was raised to the
de la personne»;
Schengen Agreement in this capacity in 1985. rank of Steering Committee, thereby connecting women’s rights to human
8.3. de poursuivre et d'intensifier ses travaux relatifs à l'égalité des droits entre les femmes et les
hommes, afin que soit réalisée une pleine égalité dans le droit et dans les faits, en mettant l'accent, en In May 1989, she was elected Secretary General of the Council of Europe. rights, which is the institution’s primary purpose.
particulier, sur l'égalité en matière de participation à la vie politique et au processus de prise de
décision; The first woman to serve in this role, Catherine Lalumière intended to use She is currently Chair of the Maison de l’Europe de Paris, the Relais Culture
8.4. d'accorder une attention adéquate aux moyens d'améliorer la présence des femmes dans les it to champion women’s rights. As early as July 1989, meeting with the mi- Europe and the European Association of Schools of Political Studies,
organes représentatifs du Conseil de l'Europe ainsi que dans tous les échelons de son Secrétariat, y
compris dans les échelons les plus élevés, et d'assurer l'assistance administrative indispensable au
nisters responsible for gender equality issues in the twenty-three Member Council of Europe. “The Council of Europe was a laboratory of ideas to
niveau du Secrétariat pour les travaux relatifs à l'égalité entre les femmes et les hommes; States, she launched a reflection on women and political power in Europe. serve women. It is where we adopted a measure with far-reaching conse-
The Secretary General of the Council of Europe enjoys very little room for quences for our principles: women’s rights issues were removed from the
1. Discussion par l'Assemblée le 24 janvier 1994 (1re séance) (voir Doc. 6985, rapport de la commission des questions manoeuvre, yet Catherine Lalumière strove to make the role similar to the social affairs department and attached to the human rights department.”
juridiques et des droits de l'homme, rapporteuse: Mme Err). Texte adopté par l'Assemblée le 24 janvier 1994 (1re séance).
F - 67075 Strasbourg Cedex | assembly@coe.int | Tel: +33 3 88 41 2000 | Fax: +33 3 88 41 2733W OMEN IN THE EUROPEAN INSTITUTIONS Women in decision-making roles in European institutions.
S. Veil at the European Parliament, 1979. / Louise Weiss with Pieter Dankert, President of the
S. Veil President of the EP, Das Europaische Parlament, 1979.
European Parliament, and S. Veil, 10 October 1982.
Simone Veil, Guardian Women, 5 March 1985. /
S
IMONE VEIL, A KEY EUROPEAN FIGURE
(1927 - 2017)
Simone Veil was born in Nice in 1927. She was deported to the Auschwitz Democracy party (UDF). She was appointed as candidate of the liberal
concentration camp, where she was held for 13 months. After the war, group for the presidency of the Parliament. Over her term of office, she
she studied at the Paris Institute for Political Studies, then at the Faculty advocated her understanding of supranational structures with strength
of Law, before becoming a magistrate. Working for the prison system, her and energy, and developed initiatives for the issues that she was
reputation grew when she used her talents as an expert of legal reform on particularly passionate about. In particular, she contributed to raising the
legislation on child adoption. European Parliament’s profile in European public opinion and to improve
Her career in politics only really began in 1974 when she was appointed its slightly lacklustre image. In addition, she developed contacts with third
Minister for Health by President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, in order to solve countries, embarking the institution on a path towards EU enlargement.
the thorny issue of abortion legislation. She remained in this role until “We all know that these challenges […] can only be effectively met through
1979. solidarity. Beside the superpowers, only Europe as a whole is capable of
For the first European Parliament elections by direct universal suffrage, taking the necessary action which is beyond its individual members in iso-
Simone Veil topped the list of candidates for the Union for French lation.”V
Vassó Papandreou, 1990.
Document signed by Vassó Papandreou and Jacques Delors on International Women’s Day, 1996.
ASSÓ PAPANDREOU, THE COMMISSION IS OPEN TO WOMEN
(1944 -)
Greek national Vassó Papandreou studied economics at the Uni- In 1989, she addressed the European Parliament, asserting that
versity of Athens. In 1981, already enjoying a high profile in Greek the Single European Act could not be a success without a strong
economic institutions, she became a pillar of the Panhellenic So- social policy. In 1992, she signed the charter adopted in Athens
cialist Movement (PA.SO. K.) and was elected member of the Greek during the first European Summit of “Women in Power”, a key step
Parliament in 1985. in the fight for gender equality on a European level. She expressed
The European Commission, which up to then had been a men-only great disappointment, however, in 1999 when European countries
club, a term coined by French politician Yvette Roudy, was finally refused to sign the common declaration on equal power-sharing
opened to women under the presidency of Jacques Delors. Vassó between men and women, which, for once, put forward concrete
Papandreou was the first woman, with French politician Chris- proposals. “I am not satisfied with signing a declaration. I would
tiane Scrivener, to become a European Commissioner. She was in have wanted our meeting to be followed up by actions.”
charge of the portfolio for Employment, Industrial Relations and
Social Affairs.David Sassoli and Christine Lagarde, Brussels, 2019.
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Loyola de Palacio, 1990.
OYOLA DE PALACIO, EUROPE ON NEW FRONTS
(1950 – 2006)
Born in Madrid, Loyola de Palacio received an honorary degree in maritime laissez-faire attitude in this sector and in that of air transport. She also
economics and transport from the University of Geneva. A prominent fi- advocated the idea of an independent Europe, which must increase its en-
gure of the Spanish right, she was Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and ergy generation capacities and the independence of its communications
Food from 1996. networks. With this goal in mind, she launched the Galileo project in 2001,
Having acquired a reputation for her “fighting spirit” in agricultural nego- bringing about highly precise geolocation not dependent on the US GPS.
tiations in Brussels, she was elected Member of the European Parliament, At the Commission, Loyola de Palacio left behind an image of a woman
topping the list of candidates of the People’s Party of Spain in 1999. Ap- full of energy and conviction. In 2001, during the presentation in Helsinki of
pointed Vice-President of the Commission in charge of transport and en- the Green Paper on the security of energy supply, she said: “The problem
ergy, she was the first woman to occupy such a position. that the energy sector in Europe is facing is how to reconcile the main
In the same year, she had to deal with the emotional reaction to the sinking objectives of economic growth, energy supply security and environmental
of the Erika and the resulting oil spill. She then started to draft regulato- protection […].”
ry proposals to step up shipping safety, thereby breaking away from theW OMEN TODAY AND EUROPE The women who are building the Europe of the 21st century.
David Sassoli and Christine Lagarde, Brussels, 2019.
Christine Lagarde, for the IMF, Euro Summit 2015.
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HRISTINE LAGARDE, FEMINA ECONOMICA
(1956 -)
Christine Lagarde studied law at the University Paris X and went on Nominated by the European Council to become President of the
to pass the Paris Bar. She worked as a lawyer at Baker & McKenzie European Central Bank in 2019, once again she became the first
in the USA before holding positions as Minister for Foreign Trade woman to head this institution.
and Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries in the French govern- Her career, punctuated by her strong work ethic, will have contri-
ment from 2005 to 2007. Her appointment in 2007 as Minister for buted to creating places for women in global and European econo-
the Economy made her the first woman to hold this position in a mic governance. During an interview with RTL in October 2019, she
G8 country. In 2011, she was appointed head of the International justified the role of women in economics and finance with a triple
Monetary Fund (IMF). She was also the first woman to hold this focus: “Legitimate equality, necessary diversity, probably different
position. management.”U
Ursula von der Leyen, COP25, Chile, 2019.
Ursula von der Leyen, EP, 2019.
RSULA VON DER LEYEN, A WOMAN AT THE HEAD OF THE COMMISSION
(1958 -)
German politician Ursula von der Leyen spent her childhood in Bel- Known for her pugnacity, in 2019 she became the first woman to
gium and attended the European School. A doctor by training, she be elected President of the European Commission. In her inaugural
spent around ten years in the USA before encountering major suc- speech and in her team, she once again favoured women. She also
cess in politics in 2003. Immediately appointed Minister for Health insists on the geopolitical role that Europe must play in relation to
and Social Affairs in Lower Saxony, she was noticed by Chancel- the USA and China and has made the Green Deal the EU’s priority,
lor Angela Merkel, who shares her political affiliation. Ursula von a social transition policy in response to the challenge of climate
der Leyen was appointed Federal Minister of Family Affairs, then change which is set to inform all decisions to be made over the
Federal Minister of Labour, positions in which she advocated for coming five years. “The path is arduous, the task is not easy. But
women’s professional careers and the enforcement of quotas for together we can do it.”
German boards of directors. From 2013 to 2019, she was also the
first woman to be Defence Minister in Germany.Pascal Lamy, Margrethe Vestager and Enrico Letta, 20th anniversary of the Jacques Delors Institute,
Margrethe Vestager, European Commission, 2018.
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2016.
ARGRETHE VESTAGER, “THE IRON LADY WHO IS TAKING ON GAFA”
(1968 -)
Daughter of Danish Lutheran ministers, Margrethe Vestager gra- companies to pay taxes which they had avoided with the blessing
duated from the University of Copenhagen in 1993 with a degree of the Member States concerned, making competition a weapon of
in economics. She joined the Finance Ministry and worked there fiscal anti-optimisation. In the meantime, she also investigated tax
for five years. She stood out for her firmly modern stances, such structures in Luxembourg, Ireland and the Netherlands.
as her support for the right to blasphemy during the case of the In 2019, in the new Commission team led by Ursula von der Leyen,
Muhammad cartoons in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper. Margrethe Vestager holds the position of Executive Vice-President
In 2014, she was appointed European Commissioner for Compe- and, entrusted with the additional digital transition role, is just as
tition and became the figurehead of the Juncker Commission for determined: “Europe should not give up its willingness to protect
her uncompromising attitude in relation to the American Big Tech the fundamental values. […] I think it is the best thing to do because
companies. She charismatically imposed fines for abuse of a do- this European approach has taken us so far, and it has made us one
minant position, starting with Google. She then obliged the GAFA of the most attractive places to live on the planet ever.”British poster for International Women’s Day, 1974.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND PHOTO CREDITS
© rights reserved. Quotes: Mémoires, Jean Monnet, Paris: Fayard, 1976; “1950-
We would once again like to thank Françoise Thébaud, Anne-Laure Briatte, Eliane
2000. Un demi-siècle d’interprétation de conférence moderne”, www.aiic.net, 30
Gubain and the Editions de la Sorbonne for the attention and assistance they have
Sept. 2002, viewed on 8 July 2016 / p. 8 © HAEU © HAEU © European Union 2003.
provided to this project despite very short deadlines.
Quote: Vogel-Polsky, Vogel-Polsky, É. (1968). Socialisme, p. 42. / p. 9 © HAEU ©
We would also like to thank, for their assistance with iconographic research, Gilles HAEU © HAEU. Quote: Femmes d’Europe, 00, 1977 / p. 10 © Council of Europe ©
Grin and Vincent Bezançon from the Jean Monnet Foundation; Dieter Schlenker and Senate © IJD 2018. Quote: extract from the minutes of the “Les Femmes et l’Europe”
Rachel Strong from the Historical Archives of the European Union; Claire Desavoye conference held on 25 September 2013 / p. 12 © HAUE © HAUE © European
and Lindsay Van Heyste from the European Commission; Ludovic Delépine and Union 1979 © European Union 1982. Quote: Simone Veil’s inaugural speech at the
Jean-Pierre Jarry from the European Parliament and Ursula Serafin from the European Parliament on 17 July 1979 in Strasbourg / p. 13 © HAEU © European
Maison de l’Europe de Paris. Union 1990. Quote: extract from an article from the newspaper L’Humanité, “Parité :
l’Europe refuse le plan d’action français”, April 1999 / p. 14 © European Union 1999
Lastly, we would like to thank the team at the Jacques Delors Institute for their
© European Union 2000 / p. 16 © European Union 2019 © European Union 2015
assistance and careful proofreading. Special thanks to Emilie Magdalinski, Matthieu
/ p. 17 © European Union 2019 © European Union 2020 © European Union 2019
Meunier and Margaux Truc.
Quote: speech at the European Parliament, 27 November 2019. / p. 18 © European
p. 1 © HAEU / p. 2 © Wikimedia Commons / p. 4 © Gallica © HAEU / p. 5 © Marshall Union 2018 © IJD 2016. Quote: press conference, 13 February 2020. / p. 19 ©
Foundation © Mount Holyock College. Quote: HAEU, Miriam Camps, INT 492 / p. 6 Wikimedia Commons / p. 20 © Editions de la Sorbonne.© Les éditions de la Sorbonne, 2019.
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