‘I existed’: Women’s suffrage in France

On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of obtaining the right to vote for women in France, we propose that you (re)immerse yourself in the little stories of the time that contributed to this social advance. On the program: the fall of a misogyne senator and the advent of Mathilde Mir, resistant, feminist, elected and teacher.

‘I existed’: Women’s suffrage in France

80 years after French women cast their ballots for the first time, we take a look at the history of women’s suffrage in France. We dive into what it was like to vote on April 29th, 1945, and how, today, France still has work to do on this front. We also discuss some nations where suffrage is being unexpectedly walked back.

On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the promulgation of the right to vote of women in France, a return to a historic battle and the inegalites still remaining in the world.

How French women won, and used, their right to vote in 1945

Eighty years ago French women went to the polls for the first time, during municipal elections on 29 April 1945 – turning a centuries-long battle for equality into an historic reality.

France TV Universal suffrage in 1848 and women's right to vote granted in 1944: women's voting appeared "on the sly" in 1945 and struggled to enter history. Historian Claude Lelièvre highlights the discreet treatment of the history of women's voting. Exactly eighty years ago, women voted in France for the first time, in the municipal elections of April 29, 1945. An ordinance of the Provisional Government of the French Republic had confirmed on O…

Exactly 80 years ago, on April 29, 1945, French women finally had the power to vote in municipal elections. A right obtained on April 21, 1944, by the provisional government of General de Gaulle. Until now reduced to the status of mother and wife, women became both voters and eligible, in the same way as men. A look back at this historic moment in French politics, and especially the progress of a long struggle of more than a century.