International Women's Day: Is Emmanuel Macron still a self declared feminist?

It is turning out to be an uncomfortable International Women’s Day for President Emmanuel Macron. The man who said in a speech in 2017 that the “cause of his term” was gender equality is under fire from a junior minister and feminist organisations.

The junior minister, Elisabeth Moreno who is in charge of gender equality, criticised him for having only one woman amongst his 13 closest advisors while feminists are calling for men and women to finish work early today to protest the gender pay gap. Research by the Brussels-based European Trade Union Confederation has shown that women in France may have to wait over 1000 years before the gender pay-gap is fully eliminated on current trends.

 It was all so much easier on the campaign trail when he told me during a panel on women’s empowerment I was moderating for the Women’s Forum for Economy and Society that he was a feminist. The Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau and Muhtar Kent, the CEO of Coca Cola had just declared themselves feminists.

Here is what Emmanuel Macron said:  

 His hope that he would be recognised by women as a feminist though took a hit when he appointed last July Gérald Darmanin as his interior minister; the man nominally in charge of the country’s police force is under investigation for rape.

Although all of his cabinets since his appointment in 2017 have been 50/50 men and women, most of the important posts like that of interior minister have gone to men.  This led to a flurry of media headlines such as that in Politico asking, “Does Emmanuel Macron have a women problem? The short answer is yes.”