OBITUARY
France's pioneering women's rights minister Yvette Roudy dies aged 97
Yvette Roudy, France's first women's rights minister and a leading figure in the country's feminist movement, has died at the age of 97.
Issued on: 19/08/2026 - RFI
Yvette Roudy (right) with French film director Agnes Varda on 17 November, 1981, shortly after being appointed France’s minister for women’s rights. ASSOCIATED PRESS - Herve Merliac
Roudy died on Tuesday in a medical care facility in southern France, where she had lived for the past three years, her nephew Jean-Pierre Saldou told the French news agency AFP.
From 1981 to 1986, under Socialist President François Mitterrand, she headed France's first fully fledged ministry dedicated to women's rights, giving the issue an unprecedented place in government.
Her time in office brought major changes, including legislation providing for abortion costs to be reimbursed through the national health insurance system and she lent her name to a 1983 law on professional equality between men and women.
She also secured official recognition of 8 March as International Women's Day in France.
Roudy died on Tuesday in a medical care facility in southern France, where she had lived for the past three years, her nephew Jean-Pierre Saldou told the French news agency AFP.
From 1981 to 1986, under Socialist President François Mitterrand, she headed France's first fully fledged ministry dedicated to women's rights, giving the issue an unprecedented place in government.
Her time in office brought major changes, including legislation providing for abortion costs to be reimbursed through the national health insurance system and she lent her name to a 1983 law on professional equality between men and women.
She also secured official recognition of 8 March as International Women's Day in France.
A life of activism
Born Yvette Saldou on 10 April 1929 in Pessac, near Bordeaux, Roudy left school early and worked as a typist in a fish-canning factory before returning to education.
She became involved in feminist and socialist activism in the 1960s, joining the Mouvement Démocratique Féminin (MDF) in 1964. A year later she founded and edited a fortnightly journal, La Femme du XXe Siècle.
In 1971, she signed the "Manifesto of the 343", a public declaration supporting abortion rights, and joined Mitterrand at the Socialist Party's Épinay Congress. She was elected to the European parliament in 1979, where she founded its women's rights committee.
Her political career continued after she left government. Roudy served as a member of parliament for Calvados from 1986 to 2002 and was mayor of Lisieux from 1989 to 2001.
She continued to campaign for equal pay, anti-discrimination measures and greater representation of women in politics. She was also one of the driving forces behind a 2000 law requiring political parties to field equal numbers of male and female candidates.
Roudy remained outspoken about inequality in later life. Reflecting in 1996 on plans to reserve 30 percent of constituencies for women candidates, she asked: "30 percent of what, exactly – token candidacies with no real chance of election, or a genuine push to get women into the National Assembly? That ambiguity is precisely what needs resolving."
Roudy (second left), alongside then prime minister Laurent Fabius, gives a press conference on 8 March, 1985 in Paris to mark International Women's Day, which Roudy helped establish in France. AFP - MICHEL CLEMENT
'Women's rights are never won'
Her feminism extended beyond French politics. Speaking after returning from the United Nations Conference on Women in Nairobi in 1985, Roudy argued that women in both rich and poor countries faced forms of invisibility, including sexual and sexist violence that went largely unseen.
She also challenged traditional ideas about women's place in society. Discussing a 2001 law on surnames, she argued that generations of laws had erased names passed down through mothers and said that the authority men had been given under Napoleon would have to be shared.
Her death prompted tributes from the political left, with the Socialist party hailing a minister who "brought about historic advances" and "helped to permanently change women's lives".
Former president François Hollande praised her as a "woman of conviction" who "never stopped defending her ideas".
Socialist senator Laurence Rossignol wrote that while Roudy was gone, so much of her endured: state-funded abortion, the feminisation of professional titles, equal pay, parity in politics – all, she said, bore her stamp.
President François Hollande presents Roudy with the title of ‘Officer of the Legion of Honour’ at the Élysée Palace on 26 November 2013. © Christian Hartmann / AFP
French language authority finally gives thumbs up to feminise job titles
Aurore Bergé, France's incumbent minister for gender equality and against discrimination, said Roudy had remained "a demanding, independent and tireless campaigner" until the end of her life.
"She had to persuade, challenge and fight for progress at a time when women's rights still had to force their way into the halls of power," Bergé said.
(with newswires)
French language authority finally gives thumbs up to feminise job titles
Aurore Bergé, France's incumbent minister for gender equality and against discrimination, said Roudy had remained "a demanding, independent and tireless campaigner" until the end of her life.
"She had to persuade, challenge and fight for progress at a time when women's rights still had to force their way into the halls of power," Bergé said.
(with newswires)
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