Women need to be able to vote but they also need to get involved in politics

Mr President,
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is my pleasure and my honour to speak before you today, on a topic that is not only crucial to our democracies but also very close to my heart: ending violence against women in politics.

The involvement of one’s voice in his or her country’s democratic system starts with a very simple action: voting.

It may seem like one of the most common, trivial action to some, to others it is not even a reality.

Many of these – others – are women.

Because you know, voting rights for women are very recent, even in western democracies.

In France, it has not even been a hundred years since women have had the right to vote!

I am deeply convinced that preventing half of its population from actively participating in the civic life of their country is a great hindrance to a healthy democracy.

Women need to be able to vote but they also need to get involved in politics!

Women’s voices have to count and have to be heard.

In this purpose, they have to be at the decision table.

In France, in 2017, the President Emmanuel MACRON made sure that half of the candidates from his party to the parliamentary elections were women.

Thanks to this measure, there are now 40% of women in the French National Assembly.

And more than half of the Ministers within the French Government are women.

This French example shows that sometimes there is a need of a strong and determined political action to lead a cultural shift.

Politics is one of those where we are lacking women and when they exist, they are too invisible. It’s not that women don’t want to get involved in politics, it’s just that politic is a male world made by men for men. And it is sometime too exclusive.

But we can’t afford leaving behind the political scene 52% of the humanity because every political decision that we make does impact them.

But the pathway to women’s political journey is sometimes strewn with pitfalls.

Having half of our population getting involved, being elected and rising to the top of our States is healthy, fair and necessary.

As political leaders from all around the world, we have the power and it is our duty to fight against any act of deterrence, any violence whether it is verbal, behavioral or physical.

This is key to attract more women to this world where they are so much needed.

As French feminist Simone DE BEAUVOIR said, we must remain vigilant to the rise of extremisms and populisms that so ever allow women’s rights to go backwards, because in doing so they are a direct threat to the integrity of our democracies.

And as politics, we need to set the example. It is our duty, it is our responsibility.

Thank you.