Germaine Poinso-Chapuis (6 March 1901,

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

, Bouches-du-Rhône – 20 February 1981) was a French politician. She was the first woman to hold a Cabinet-level post in the French government. Her political convictions have been characterized as bearing the influence of both Catholic and feminist traditions.

Political career

Born Germaine Chapuis in the

Bouches-du-Rhône Bouches-du-Rhône ( , , ; oc, Bocas de Ròse ; "Mouths of the Rhône") is a department in Southern France. It borders Vaucluse to the north, Gard to the west and Var to the east. The Mediterranean Sea lies to the south. Its prefecture and ...

district of

, Poinso-Chapuis was one of the first women in the city to qualify and practice as a lawyer, passing the bar in 1921. She became active in the movement for

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

in the 1930s. A Christian Democrat by conviction, she became an early member of the Parti démocrate populaire (PDP), the precursor to the

Popular Republican Movement The Popular Republican Movement (french: Mouvement Républicain Populaire, MRP) was a Christian-democratic political party in France during the Fourth Republic. Its base was the Catholic vote and its leaders included Georges Bidault, Robert Sc ...

(MRP). Within the PDP she campaigned to increase political representation of women. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, she was involved in the

French Resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

. It was with the MRP that she entered the constituent parliament in 1945, winning election to the seat for her native Bouches-du-Rhône. Then, she was re-elected for the second constituent parliament of 1946, and in November 1946, during the

legislative elections A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

, she was elected member of the

National Assembly (France) The National Assembly (french: link=no, italics=set, Assemblée nationale; ) is the lower house of the bicameral French Parliament under the Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are kno ...

, still as a deputy of

. She remained an advocate for women's rights throughout her career, arguing in 1946 for a change in regulations to allow women to serve as judges. Poinso-Chapuis was in November 1947 appointed to the ministry of Public Health and Population in the government of Robert Schuman. In the month before the government fell, Poinso-Chapuis brought in a decree which gave an allowance to every parent of a French school child. She remained the only woman to have served as a minister of France until 1974, when

Simone Veil Simone Veil (; ; 13 July 1927 – 30 June 2017) was a French magistrate and politician who served as Health Minister in several governments and was President of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1982, the first woman to hold that office. ...

took over the same portfolio.

The "Poinso-Chapuis decree"

In post Poinso-Chapuis introduced a number of measures, including to extend the provision of

vaccination Vaccination is the administration of a vaccine to help the immune system develop immunity from a disease. Vaccines contain a microorganism or virus in a weakened, live or killed state, or proteins or toxins from the organism. In stimulating ...

and to enhance the status of nurses. However, her name was most associated with a measure nicknamed the "décret Poinso-Chapuis". The May 1948 decree by Prime Minister Schuman, proposed to grant non-state family associations permission to receive public funds to be spent on child welfare provisions irrespective of whether the children were enrolled in secular state schools or in church-financed institutions. The measure proved intensely controversial, with Education Minister

Édouard Depreux Édouard Gustave Depreux (31 October 1898 – 16 October 1981) was a French socialist journalist, essayist, and politician of the French Fourth Republic; he was born in Viesly (''département'' of Nord) and died in Paris. Early career Born ...

claiming that it was invalid without his signature. Though the Council of State ruled that the measure was legal, its implementation was temporarily suspended. The affair proved poisonous both to Poinso-Chapuis's ministerial career and to the government of Schuman, who was shortly afterward replaced as Prime Minister (albeit only for a month) by the Radical André Marie. Poinso-Chapuis too, although she had never formally signed the decree, lost her post over the affair, being replaced by

Pierre Schneiter François Charles Pierre Schneiter (13 May 1905 – 19 March 1979) was a French politician. Pierre Schneiter was born in Reims, elder son of Charles Albert Schneiter, a wine broker, and Jeanne Marie Alice Sart. Charles Schneiter's father wa ...

. Poinso-Chapuis nonetheless remained a member of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

, winning reelection in the 1951 elections. For the remainder of her career she voted largely with the MRP party line.

Personal life

Poinso-Chapuis was married in 1937 to Henri Poinso, a fellow lawyer, with whom she had two children.

Legacy

Several places are named after her, including a street in Poitiers and a technical high-school in

Honours

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

* Resistance Medal *

Ordre de la Santé publique The Order of Public Health ( French: ''Ordre de la Santé publique'') was a French order of merit, created by presidential decree of President Albert Lebrun on 18 February 1938 and amended on 22 May 1954, and awarded for services to the public h ...

References

External links

Review and summary
by Sylvie Chaperon, of ''Germaine Poinso-Chapuis: Femme d'État'', by Yvonne Knibiehler, published in 1998. {{DEFAULTSORT:Poinso-Chapuis, Germaine 1901 births 1981 deaths 20th-century French lawyers 20th-century women lawyers Catholic feminists French feminists French Roman Catholics French suffragists Politicians from Marseille Popular Democratic Party (France) politicians Popular Republican Movement politicians 20th-century French women politicians