French Women Leaders

Marie Curie and Pierre Curie’s daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, herself a brilliant scientist, won the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, along with her husband, Joliot-Curie, for discovering artificial radioactivity. She was also one of the first three female French government members. She tragically died of leukemia caused by exposure to radiation.

Charlotte Corday was an important figure of the French Revolution. She is remembered for murdering Jacobin leader Jean-Paul Marat, for which she was executed by guillotine. Her action changed the political position and role of women at the time. She was also considered a hero by those who opposed the teachings of Jean-Paul Marat.

French politician and lawyer Marine Le Pen, daughter of politician Jean-Marie Le Pen, has been the president of the National Rally since 2011. She is also serving as the member of the National Assembly for Pas-de-Calais's 11th constituency since 2017. She was previously a member of the European Parliament.

Christine Lagarde is a French politician, businessperson, and lawyer. She is the current president of the European Central Bank (ECB), a position she has been holding since 1 November 2019. Prior to this, she was the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). She is the first woman to head both the ECB and the IMF. 

A Holocaust survivor, Simone Veil had lost her father, mother, and brother to Nazi concentration camps. She grew up to be a magistrate and became the first woman president of the European Parliament. She had also been an able health minister and rallied for abortion rights of French women.

Born to a French colonel in Senegal, Ségolène Royal had met former French president François Hollande, her future husband, while studying economics at the Paris-based École Nationale d’Administration. The mother of four has also been a Socialist Party presidential candidate and the French minister of ecology.

Born in her grandmother’s farm in Morocco, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem migrated to France around the age of five. A graduate of Institut d'études politiques de Paris, she joined the Socialist Party (PS) at twenty-five, eventually becoming the first French woman to serve as Minister of Education, Higher Education, and Research. Currently, she serves as Director of the One Campaign in France.

A significant figure of the Paris Commune, Louise Michel was born as an illegitimate child of a maid. She had initially been trained to be a teacher but later began developing an interest in revolutionary socialist ideas. She was also once sent behind bars for inciting riots.

The wife of Jean-Marie Roland, Madame Roland was a leading French revolutionary and often hosted significant political meets at her salon. She often directed her husband’s political actions and was responsible for creating a rift between the Jacobin and Girondin factions. She was later arrested and guillotined.

Lucie Samuel was a French history-teacher and member of French Resistance during Second World War. She obtained an agrégation of history, an uncommon feat for a woman of her time. Her husband Raymond Aubrac, a leader of French Resistance, was given death-sentence. Lucie helped in organising his escape from prison. The couple later joined Charles de Gaulle’s government in exile. 

Édith Cresson is a French politician who served as the prime minister of France from 1991 to 1992. She is the first, and so far the only woman to have held this office. Her term was uneventful and her political career ended in scandal. She is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders as well.  

French left-wing politician Christiane Taubira has been the French minister of justice. A French Guianese by birth, she co-established the Caricoop Agricultural Association. The author of Slavery Explained to My Daughter, she lent her name to a law that prohibited Atlantic slave trade. She also legalized same-sex marriages in France.

Helene Rytmann was a French sociologist and revolutionary who played an important role in the French Resistance. Widely regarded as a historically important Jewish woman, Helene Rytmann was murdered by her husband Louis Althusser. The case was never properly investigated and the scandal of Rytmann's murder inspired the 2002 novel Shroud which was written by Irish novelist William John Banville.

Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet is a French engineer, advocate, and public figure. A former politician, Kosciusko-Morizet was a member of parliament and also served as the mayor of Longjumeau. In 2012, she also served as Nicolas Sarkozy's spokesperson during the latter's presidential reelection campaign.

Verónika Mendoza is a Peruvian-French politician, educator, and psychologist. She is currently serving as the president of a left-wing political party called New Peru, which she founded in 2017. Verónika Mendoza is also known for her association with the Universidad Nacional del Altiplano de Puno, where she worked as a professor before commencing her political career.

Born in Senegal, French politician and author Rama Yade started her career as a top-level civil servant with the French Senate. The UMP member has led France as its Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Human Rights and for Sports. She has also represented France at the UNESCO.

Eva Joly is a Norwegian-born French magistrate and politician. An important member of Europe Écologie–The Greens, Joly represented the party as a presidency candidate of France in 2012. A popular politician, Eva Joly has also received prestigious awards such as the Peer Gynt Prize and the Sophie Prize.