French female ministers vow to fight sexual harassment

French female ministers vow to fight sexual harassment. May. 17, 2016 07:59. by 파리=전승훈특파원 raphy@donga.com.

Current and former French ministers have announced a statement to condemn sexual harassment rampant in French politics.

In a statement published in the Journal du Dimanche weekly paper, 17 current and former ministers of France including Finance Minister turned-IMF head Christine Lagarde and former French Culture Minister Fleur Pellerin said that they will “no longer be silent about sexual harassment in politics,” vowing to systematically denounce all sexist remarks and inappropriate gestures and behaviors in politics.

The female ministers told stories about their experiences of sexual harassment in the newspaper. Among them was 89-year-old former justice secretary Monique Pelletier who recently announced that she had been sexually assaulted by a senator 37 years ago, and now feels ashamed of her own silence. Some of the bunch of testimonies given by the ministers included quotes such as, “Apart from her great breasts, what is she like?” or “Your skirt is too long, it needs to be shortened.” Korean-born former minister Fleur Pellerin shared the story where she was asked by a male journalist if she was given the job "because you are a beautiful woman" after her first appointment in government in 2014.

The statement came to light after a serious of sexual scandals involving high-ranking government officials and politicians erupted one after another in France. Denis Baupin, former deputy speaker of the French assembly, is undergoing police investigation on the charges of sending explicit messages to four female Green Party members and groping one of them. Baupin resigned on May 9 but is denying such allegations.

In May last year, a petition was filed by 40 female journalists, which was published on the front page of the daily Liberacion under the title of "Don’t touch my body," exposing the repeated sexists remarks and behaviors by male French politicians. In the statement, the female journalists said that the male politicians often make proposals to them, suggesting that they should have drinks for a meeting or have dinner together on Saturday night in return for information.