Star Metro - France's first women's rights minister Yvette Roudy dies, aged 97

Roudy passed away Tuesday morning in a medical care facility in southern France where she had lived for three years, her nephew Jean-Pierre Saldou said.

From 1981 to 1986, Roudy headed the first fully fledged women's rights ministry in France under the late president Francois Mitterrand, giving the cause of women an unprecedented place within the government.

During her time in office, the Socialist politician secured the passage of legislation for the reimbursement of abortion costs by the national health insurance system and lent her name to a 1983 law on professional equality between men and women.

As a minister, and later as a feminist activist, she was one of the driving forces behind a 2000 law obliging parties to field an equal number of men and women candidates, aimed at boosting the number of women in parliament.

"Right to the end, she remained a demanding, independent and tireless campaigner, convinced that women's rights are never definitively won," said Aurore Berge, France's current minister for gender equality and against discrimination.

"She had to persuade, challenge and fight for progress at a time when women's rights still had to force their way into the halls of power," she said in a statement.

Her death prompted numerous reactions from the political left, with the Socialist party paying tribute to a minister who "brought about historic advances" and "helped to permanently change women's lives".

Former president Francois Hollande praised Roudy as a "woman of conviction" who "never stopped defending her ideas" in an X post.

She also secured the official recognition of March 8 as International Women's Rights Day in France, Hollande said.

P.Beaulieu--SMC