00:00 April 29th, 1945. French citizens head to the polls for municipal elections,
00:06 and for the first time in history, women are allowed to vote.
00:09 It was a watershed moment that had been years in the making.
00:21 After the First World War, many democratic nations recognized women's pivotal role in the conflict
00:28 and gave them the right to vote. Hoping to emulate their British and American allies,
00:33 feminist organizations campaigned for the same rights in France,
00:36 but their proposals were all rejected by the Senate.
00:40 In 1934, the movement Femme Nouvelle, or New Woman, continued to push for equality,
00:53 and despite being barred from holding public office, its founder Louise Weiss
00:58 still ran in the 1935 and 1936 elections.
01:02 I simply want the same rights for French men and women.
01:08 That same year, Weiss was one of three women appointed to join Léon Blum's government,
01:14 but she turned down the offer.
01:16 I didn't want to be appointed. I wanted to be elected.
01:22 French feminists would have to wait nearly 10 years and another world war to get what they wanted.
01:28 In March 1944, Parliament adopted an amendment giving all women the right to vote and run for
01:35 office, and a month later, the bill was signed into law. Yet despite these newly acquired rights,
01:42 abstention long remained sky-high among French female voters.
01:46 It was only in the 1970s that mentalities truly began to change,
01:52 and that women started voting in droves.
01:54 It's very important. I vote every five years.
01:58 We need to remember that many women before us protested and fought for these rights a century
02:06 ago. That's why I vote.
02:08 French women now vote in the same proportion as men, and while recent governments achieved
02:14 relative gender parity, women remain underrepresented in Parliament, especially in the Senate.
02:20 [FRENCH]
